Chasing the Wind
by everythingfeelslikethemovies
Summary: When dragons are spotted in the Kingdom of DunBroch, Queen Elinor sends for the Chiefs of Berk to help train them before they begin attacking the people. Meanwhile, Jackson Overland is trying to find a new home after a war tore him away from his family. Main pairings are Mericcup and Jackunzel. Also tells the story of how Hiccup became the dragon king and Merida became the fate.
1. Chapter 1

_This is freedom._

That was all Hiccup could think as he climbed higher and higher in the sky. The air grew thinner, and the wind grew harsher, but he hardly noticed. These were the moments he lived for, the moments where he could run from his responsibilities and soar through the clouds with the only other creature in the universe who understood him. Hiccup felt weightless as Toothless began to flap his leathery wings harder to gain even more altitude.

Hiccup reached his arm up and brushed his fingertips through the misty clouds. He realized that he had been smiling ever since he woke up, and his cheeks sort of hurt... Even so, he laughed it off and closed his eyes in content. The cold air was biting at his cheeks, but he welcomed it. This was where he belonged, soaring through the sky with the dragons.

Ever since the fateful day Hiccup found Toothless, he had felt a special bond with the dragon, something he wasn't sure anyone else truly understood. Toothless was more than just Hiccup's pet, even more than his best friend. Toothless's soul reflected Hiccup's, and it was clear how close they were just by watching them fly. Because of Toothless's missing tail fin, he and his rider had to be one mind to properly fly together. Hiccup was the only dragon rider who could sense exactly what Toothless was thinking and react quickly enough. It felt like Hiccup was an extension of the dragon, and vice versa.

As the sun began to rise, the clouds were painted shades of pale pinks and oranges and lavenders. Toothless grumbled in annoyance, and Hiccup let out a small huff as well. Rolling his eyes, Hiccup said to the dragon, "Guess we have to start heading back, bud." When Toothless tried to protest, Hiccup shook his head, "No no, it's not fair of us to leave all of the work for Astrid and Eret." After a few more mumbles and grumbles, Toothless tilted his wings just slightly to begin circling back.

Two years ago, Chief Stoic had been killed during the war against Drago. Drago was a tyrant who used fear to control an entire army of dragons, he even controlled Toothless long enough for the dragon to attempt to kill Hiccup, and succeed in killing Hiccup's father. It was the worst moment of Hiccup's entire life. He had never been so furious or so devastated or so scared. After spending years being scared of becoming his father, he was suddenly terrified that he never could.

After the dust had settled, and the war had ended, Hiccup was named the new Chief of Berk.

Two years later he was still completely clueless. That was why Astrid, and eventually Eret, offered to help him rule the tribe after a few months watching him slowly wear himself out. He was grateful for their help, and Astrid was honestly a better chief than he could ever hope to be. Stoic would've been proud of her.

Hiccup hung his head thinking about it. Time hadn't managed to heal all of the pain he still felt thinking of his dad. He shook it off as they began to approach Berk. Knowing Astrid, there'd be a four foot long list of things written in her tiny handwriting for him to do, and he didn't need to be distracted.

When they landed, Toothless took off to go goof around with the other dragons. Hiccup smiled at the nightfury before jogging towards the workshop.

"Hey Astrid," Hiccup said, ducking to not bang his head against the random tools hanging from the ceiling.

She glanced up quickly from the paper she was reading and replied, "Hiya Hiccup."

Eret, who was sitting up on the table, gave Hiccup a two-fingered salute.

Hiccup nodded at him with a smile. "So, what's going on today? Got any big plans?"

"Nothing's going on here, at least right now," Astrid shrugged. "So we figured we should read through the mail while we have extra time."

"These," Eret handed Hiccup a large stack of letters, "Were all addressed to you personally."

"Lucky me!" Hiccup grinned and took the papers. As he shuffled through and skimmed the return addresses, he saw that most of them were from neighboring tribes, places he recognized and had regularly exchanged information regarding dragons. However, one particular letter caught his attention. He stopped his skimming and stared at the neat handwriting. A tiny part of him vaguely recognized the name, but he couldn't quite place it. "Hey, Astrid?"

"Yeah?" she replied, still looking at her own letter intently.

"Where is DunBroch?"

She looked up at him, blue eyes sparkling with interest, "DunBroch? That's a Kingdom in Scotland."

"Our tribes used to be at war with them," Eret confirmed. "That was back when you two were probably about two or three, you wouldn't remember."

"And you were what? Four?" Astrid teased.

Eret smirked, "I was nine. Old enough to remember."

Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows in concern, "Do you remember why were we at war with them?"

"Probably trying to escape the dragons," Eret laughed. "The Scottish weren't too thrilled with the idea of sharing land with a bunch of Vikings, though,"

"I wonder why their Queen is sending me a letter then," Hiccup frowned.

"Open it!" Astrid said, leaning over the table to peer at the letter.

He tore it open and read the elegantly scripted words aloud, " _Dear Chief Hiccup Haddock III, As you know, decades ago, our lands were locked in a deep conflict for several long years. However, new circumstances have arose, and the Kingdom of DunBroch would like to extend the offer to mend our bonds and open up trade with the Vikings once again. We would be delighted to have you and Chief Astrid Hofferson come stay at our Kingdom for a time and discuss terms of a new alliance. Should you care to take our offer, please send a letter informing us of an estimated arrival date. If you would like to decline, please send a letter informing us that you are not interested in an alliance for the time being. We hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, Queen Elinor and King Fergus. P.S. Dragons are welcome._ "

"This is amazing! We've never traveled so far for political reasons!" Astrid grinned. "We have to go!"

"Woah, woah," Hiccup gently touched her arm to calm her. "We can't just agree to form a new alliance without discussing it among ourselves. Why would they randomly want us as allies?"

"Perhaps they heard that the leadership changed," Eret suggested with a shrug. "This could be a way to ensure that you two don't decide to try invading again."

"But if she knows about our dragons then she must know that we have no reason to want to invade," Astrid countered.

Hiccup frowned, "Maybe the dragons have spread to Scotland and they need our help to train them?"

"Well, that is kind of our job," she reminded him.

Eret shrugged and nodded in agreement, "You could discover some new species."

Hiccup felt his chest flutter with excitement with that possibility, "It might be a good idea to go and talk to the Queen. Maybe not immediately agree to an alliance, but agree to visit and discuss the possibility of one?"

"That sounds reasonable," Astrid nodded eagerly.

Hiccup smiled at her before grabbing a sheet of paper and some charcoal to draft a response.

xxx

Jackson hung his head and clutched at his stomach tightly. With every rocking of the ship, his urge to be sick grew stronger and stronger. Not that he had even eaten enough in the past few months to be properly sick. He let out a dry laugh that sounded more like retching. Compared to the hell he had just escaped, this boat ride felt like a vacation.

Late last autumn, Jackson's village was stormed by troops from an army none of the people even knew existed. They came to collect the eldest sons of each family, to force... "recruit"... them into General Pitchiner's army. Everyone reacted with varying levels of shock and confusion. General Pitchiner was a completely foreign name, and not a single soul had heard anything about a war. But the men were intimidating, so no one vocalized their protests. Jackson watched as his friends stepped up one by one as their names were called. To his horror, even little Jaime's name was called. His heart broke as he watched the twelve year old march bravely forward to his eventual death.

The only one to protest was Jackson's mother. She shouted at the leader of the troops, her words slipping from Russian to German to Norwegian as she grew angrier. His father quickly grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace so she couldn't fight back anymore. When Jack walked forward to join the other recruits, he looked back and saw the anguish in his parents' faces. He had never seen either of them cry like that.

Little Emmie wasn't even awake when the soldiers came to take Jack away. The closest he got to saying goodbye was when he kissed her goodnight the evening before. She had climbed into his bed in tears after a mean nightmare had scared her. He wrapped his favorite blanket around her and held her close, softly singing her lullabies. Even though he didn't like to sing, he would do anything to make her feel safe.

 _"Don't worry, Emmie. I'll always be right here."_

What a joke.

He hadn't been there. He hadn't been there for months. Tears temporarily blinded him as he imagined his parents having to tell her what had happened.

Guilt somehow managed to tighten the knots in his stomach as he realized they had probably already received the letter.

After months of fighting a battle for a man he didn't even know, Jack lost it. Seeing the half-frozen corpses lying in the bloody snow and knowing that he would eventually joined him chipped away at his sanity. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to be another number in the body count. He spent the freezing nights praying to the moon to help him survive, to help him escape.

Eventually, his wish was granted.

Jackson finally decided to run. He felt like a coward, but he didn't care anymore. He didn't care where he ended up as long as it was away from the bloodbath.

When he was caught, he was dragged into the office of General St. North, another man he didn't even know existed. This man was Russian, and Jack instantly felt more at ease in his presence. St. North told him that running away from the army was a crime punishable by death. He then admitted that Jack had probably already been through a fate worse than death. St. North took pity on him, and said that there was a way to get Jack aboard a ship that would take him far, far away from General Pitchiner and the war.

Obviously, Jack agreed immediately.

But then St. North told him that, for this to work, Jackson could never return to Russia. His family would be sent the same letter almost every other family in his village had received. His family would be told that Джексон по суше had died on April 1st, and that compensation for their loss would be sent within a few months.

Selfishly, Jackson still agreed.

He had no idea where the ship was going, only that each wave that crashed against it meant he was farther and farther away from his family.

It had also given him time to think. Now that he was no longer actually about to die, part of him almost wished that he had accepted death. Death couldn't be much worse than never seeing his family again.

What he really wanted was for St. North to be wrong, and that one day Jack could return home. After all, since he "died" on April 1st, maybe he could claim it was just a prank? A really horrible prank that he was truly sorry for... Or maybe he could be honest and tell them that he was a coward and ran. They would forgive him, or they'd just be so thrilled that he was alive they wouldn't care.

The ship was hit by a particularly harsh wave and Jack was knocked off balance. He gulped and took a few shaky breaths before trying to move again. He didn't wait quite long enough, and he winced and fell again. Curling up into the fetal position, he clutched tightly at his stomach and prayed that it would all be over soon.

xxx

Merida laughed out loud and shook her head, the wind blowing her curly hair behind her like a bright orange flag.

Finally, _finally,_ she had been allowed a break from the web of politics she somehow found herself caught in. The moment she was released, she ran down to the stables, hopped onto her horse-Angus-and took off. The entire day she spent riding through the thick, mysterious woods and practicing shooting her arrows.

When she looked up at the sky, she saw the clouds beginning to turn fiery shades of orange and red as the sun slowly descended. Off in the distance, she spotted a few large creatures soaring through the sky, and she grinned. Recently, dragons had been spotted more and more frequently in the Kingdom. It alarmed Queen Elinor, but Merida just found them fascinating. They didn't look at all like the strange flying lizards of legend. She really wanted to see one up close, not just as a small silhouette in the distant sky.

After watching the dragons for a while, she stood and climbed back onto Angus, "All right, time to go home."

The first person to greet her was Rapunzel, her lady-in-waiting and best friend.

"Good evening, Princess," Rapunzel smiled.

"Good evening!" Merida chirped, jumping to the ground.

"How was your ride?"

Merida grinned, "Wonderful, as always." She grabbed a brush and stroked Angus with it to clean off the dirt.

It used to be that there was a stable boy to clean her horse after a ride. But one evening when they were alone in the stables, he attempted to "woo" the Princess, pathetically hoping to marry into her power. The next day he was sent to a Kingdom in the South, and Merida had been doing the stable chores ever since. She didn't mind, however. She enjoyed it actually-part of her had even considered telling her mother not to bother getting another stable boy. But one was supposedly already on his way, so Merida decided to let it go.

Rapunzel fumbled to catch the brush when Merida casually tossed it over her shoulder. Rapunzel set the brush back in its proper place and grabbed the rake to shuffle some fresh hay around.

"So, did my mother say anything to you?" Merida asked, lifting a bucket of water and carrying it over to Angus.

Dropping the rake and rushing to help Merida with the water, she replied, "She told me you're allowed to just grab some dinner and go to bed if you'd like."

The princess couldn't help but smile, "I got the water, it's okay."

"Well, would you like me to fetch dinner for you?" Rapunzel asked, a bit too eagerly.

Merida chuckled, "Punzie, you know you aren't my maid, right? We can get ourselves dinner _together_."

"That sounds good," Rapunzel laughed sheepishly and tugged on a strand of her long, brown hair.

After Angus had been taken care of, the girls went to the kitchen and each grabbed a large plate of food before retiring to Merida's chambers.

Rapunzel gently touched the bedposts scarred from an angry Merida's sword, "So, how are the tribes doing?"

"Young Macintosh has apparently been married, to a Princess in France," Merida informed. "Mum is a bit upset we weren't invited to the wedding, but I told her it wasn't worth starting a war over."

"Well of course not."

"Oh! We did receive a response from the Chiefs of Berk!"

Rapunzel's green eyes lit up with interest, "What did they say?"

"Within a week they'll be arriving-on dragon-and are willing to discuss an alliance with us!"

"It'll be so incredible to see a dragon in person," Rapunzel mused. "Do you know what they look like?"

"Who?" Merida asked. "The chiefs? Or dragons?"

"Dragons. Although, if you know what the chiefs are like I wouldn't mind hearing about that."

"I've seen a few, but they all look so strange and indescribable, especially from so far away," Merida wrinkled her nose slightly. "But from what I've heard, Chief Haddock is basically a King of Dragons, the first one to truly learn how to train them. And the stories say his dragon is the offspring of lightning and death itself. That's how they defeated two alpha dragons.. Whatever that means."

"Perhaps we'll get to hear those stories from him.." Rapunzel said with a dreamy look in her eyes. "What about the other chief?"

Merida shrugged, "Her name is Astrid Hofferson. Supposedly she's very mature and diplomatic. I'll probably be talking to her the most."

Rapunzel nodded, "I suppose that makes sense.. But I hope we'll still get to hear Chief Haddock's stories.." She trailed off as she began to imagine soaring through an endless sky on the back of a dragon. "Do you think we'll get to ride the dragons? After Chief Haddock helps us train them?"

"I can't imagine Mum would really let that happen," Merida wrinkled her nose slightly. Seeing her friend's face fall, she quickly added, "But I could always ask! That would be a lot of fun, honestly. Probably even more wonderful than riding Angus."

"Maybe," Rapunzel agreed.

After their evening ritual of Rapunzel making a valiant attempt to tie back Merida's hair, only to gracefully accept defeat and let it spring free, the brunette retired to her own chambers right next door and fell asleep. Meanwhile, Merida remained awake, staring out the window and thinking about the dragon-riders that were possibly on their way that very moment. Rapunzel's inquiry about riding dragons had gotten the princess thinking.

 _What would it be like to ride a dragon?_

After thinking and day-dreaming (or night-dreaming?) about it for a while, Merida decided on how it would probably feel.

It'd feel like freedom. Pure, unbridled freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

After triple-checking to make sure the supplies were properly secured to Toothless, Hiccup finally allowed himself to relax. Toothless breathed a sigh of relief and flopped down onto his stomach. The dragon had gotten annoyed with the constant tugging and jostles as Hiccup tried to fasten everything.

Despite himself, Hiccup began running through a mental checklist again-a habit he had forced himself to develop after countless times having to turn Toothless around to grab something he had forgotten.

 _Food supplies for four days? Check. Dragon training manual? Check. Dragon Handbook and list of all species? Check. Say goodbye to Mom? Check._

Astrid was grimacing to herself as she carried a very heavy-looking basket.

"Need some help with that?" Eret asked, reaching to take the basket from her.

She snatched it away and replied, "Nope!"

Hiccup smirked as she tossed the basket onto Stormfly and secured it with an efficiency only Astrid was capable of.

"Are you ready to go?" Hiccup called to her.

"Yep!" she replied, hopping off the dragon. To Eret, she said, "Thank you so much for looking after Berk while we're gone."

"Oh yes!" Hiccup agreed. "It's really swell of you to help us out, it's totally not your official obligation or anything!"

Eret chuckled and shook Hiccup's hand, "Goodbye, Chief. Don't bring back any angry Scottish warriors, all right?"

"Well, you know me," Hiccup shrugged with a lopsided grin. "I won't make any promises."

As he climbed onto Toothless, Astrid said her goodbye with a very brief kiss on the cheek. Eret blushed, but he quickly regained his composure and waved as the two dragons took off.

"So, lead the way," Hiccup said, gesturing for Astrid to take the lead.

She smirked at him. Stormfly took off and zipped past Toothless.

Hiccup laughed and urged Toothless to chase after.

xxx

Jackson squinted in the harsh light. It had been a while since he had been out in direct sunlight, and the warmth was almost burning him. He couldn't help but stumble over himself as he limped his way along the docks towards solid land. He had no idea what land he was on, only that it was lush and green, and the air held a strange vibe of ancient and powerful mystery.

The ship's crew were too busy unloading and reloading new supplies to notice Jack as he slipped away.

"Now what?" he asked himself, wincing slightly at how hoarse his voice was.

St. North hadn't given him any direction in terms of where to go after the ship landed. Perhaps his fate was now his to choose.

He took a deep breath and decided to go to the village. It was obviously the easiest path, as it was literally right in front of him.

As he limped through the square, he called left and right, "Hello! Hello?" The people glanced at him with strange looks, but none of them acknowledged him.

He frowned, but shrugged it off.

A child nearly crashed into him. She looked up at him with wide, apologetic eyes.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where I am?"

The little girl's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She mumbled something, then ran off.

"Well, that was helpful," Jack muttered to himself. Before he could grumble and limp off to find someone else to ask, something caught his eye.

A small blue light glowed among the dense forest surrounding the village. Curiosity temporarily making him forget his pain and desperate need for food, Jack hobbled over towards the forest and reached out towards the strange, ethereal mist. Right as he was about to touch it, it made a strange gasping sound and disappeared.

He looked up in confusion, only to see another one a few feet away. He laughed and shuffled over with determination. The blue light disappeared once again before he could touch it. A whole trail of them appeared, almost as if creating a path through the forest.

Jack frowned and glanced back at the village. Against his better judgement, he decided to follow the blue lights and see where they would lead him.

xxx

Princess Merida sat in the great hall with Queen Elinor. Elinor was muttering to herself as she scanned pages and pages of books, desperately looking for more information about dragons and how to deal with them. So far, she hadn't found anything other than fairytales. And even though those stories rang with truths, they weren't exactly handbooks for life.

"Mum?" Merida finally said after watching the crease between her mother's eyebrows slowly deepen. "You know, you probably don't have to worry about this right now."

Elinor looked up at her daughter, "What are you saying? I should just ignore the dangerous creatures flying around the Kingdom?"

"No, no," Merida held up her hands defensively. "It's just, I mean, they haven't really attacked anyone yet. Rapunzel hasn't even seen one yet, so it's not like they're circling around the castle. And Chief Haddock and Chief Hofferson are going to be here soon, and they'll be able to solve it for us. So, I just don't think you should spend all your time worrying about it right this very second."

After a long pause, the Queen sighed and rested her forehead in her hand, "You're right, Merida. I'm just worried, that's all. And what if they don't help us?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Merida asked.

Elinor gave Merida a sharp look, "Do you ever pay attention in your history lessons?"

The princess's guilty smile answered the queen's question.

"Berk was among the Northern invaders. Because of their dragon problems, they tried to take over DunBroch," Elinor sighed. "I don't think the chiefs were old enough to remember, but what if they do remember? And they decide to deny us assistance as revenge?"

Merida shook her head, "I doubt they'd take such a long trip just to spit in our faces."

Elinor sighed again, "I suppose you're right, my dear."

Merida smiled and touched her mom's hand.

After hesitating, Elinor said, "How about you take the next few days off? Once the chiefs get here you'll be very busy, so you might as well go enjoy yourself while you can."

"Really?" Merida's blue eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yes, dear," her mother smiled. "I'll see you at dinner."

The Queen smiled fondly as she watched her daughter take off.

xxx

Rapunzel's heart was racing in anxiety all day, and she couldn't figure out why. While she waited for Merida in the stables, she sat down and pressed her hand against her chest to feel the rapid pounding. Hearing her heart beat so fast only made her anxieties stronger. The knots in her stomach were so tight she couldn't even eat breakfast.

There was a strange vision that kept dancing in her mind: a boy, glowing silver, falling through a sea of pure darkness.

She couldn't even begin to comprehend what the vision meant. Why would a boy glow silver?

Merida returned from her ride chipper as ever. She hopped down from Angus and greeted Rapunzel, as usual. But Rapunzel couldn't get herself to say anything in response.

"Rapunzel? Are you okay, lamb?" Merida asked, looking in concern at her pale-faced friend.

Rapunzel gulped and nodded, but it was clear she wasn't okay. She tried to stand and help her friend brush Angus and give him food and drink, but her head grew light and she fell to her knees.

"Rapunzel!" Merida gasped.

When Rapunzel opened her eyes, she was lying down in Merida's bed. The princess was sitting beside her, blue eyes wide in worry.

"What happened to you?" Merida asked. "You collapsed in the stables.."

"I.. I just feel ill," Rapunzel shrugged, avoiding eye contact. "I'll be all right, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Merida squeezed her friend's hand. "You know, you could've told me you didn't feel well. I would've brought you hazelnut soup!"

Despite herself, Rapunzel cracked a smile.

The two girls spent the rest of the day sitting on Merida's bed. Merida chattered away while Rapunzel listened with a content smile. She began to forget about her anxiety and her strange vision, the image of the glowing silver boy vanishing from her mind entirely.

xxx

Jackson stared at the castle in wonder. It loomed above him, looking as if it could stand strong in the midst of any invasion. Jack giggled to himself as he imagined being a giant and trying to kick down the castle only to get a stubbed toe.

His heart quickened as the last of the wisps guided him towards the gate of the palace.

As he chased the wisps, he hadn't even realized the sun was setting until it was gone entirely. His stomach growled, and his entire body screamed at him. He knew he shouldn't have wasted an entire day chasing what was probably a hallucination, but at least he had stumbled across this palace. Maybe the people here would take pity on him and let him stay the night.

A woman was already waiting outside the palace, and her eyes widened as Jackson approached.

"Hello lad!" she said in Scottish, a huge smile on her face.

 _Oh! I'm in Scotland!_ Jack realized with a small grin. That must've been why the people in the village ignored him, he was speaking in Russian, stupidly forgetting that his native tongue wasn't native everywhere. Luckily for him, his mother had been a nomad before settling down with his father in Russia, so Jackson and little Emmie were raised learning the basics of several languages, including Scottish.

Hoping he wouldn't sound too rusty, he replied, "Good evening ma'am."

"I s'pose you're the new stable boy, yeah?"

Jack knew nothing about a stable boy, only that he definitely wasn't the new one, "Aye, that's me."

"Wonderful!" the woman replied. "Let me show you to your chambers!"

As Jack followed the woman through the castle, he felt a twinge of guilt about lying to her. And what was going to happen to the new stable boy when he showed up? Right as he was about to correct himself and apologize, the woman opened the door and Jack saw a clean, soft-looking bed, with clean clothes folded neatly on top of it. All thoughts of telling the truth fled from his mind. He hobbled into the room. Even though it was a simple, slightly cramped space, he hadn't had a comfortable place to rest his head in months. Tears prickled at his eyes as he looked at it.

"Oi, what's happened to you, lad?" the woman asked, finally noticing Jackson's ragged appearance.

He turned around, eyes wide in sudden fear. Before he could stop himself, he confessed, "I'm so sorry, I'm not actually the new stable boy. I just got off a ship that landed here from Russia, I just left a really awful war there... I spent all day wandering through the forest and then I found this castle and when you asked I didn't think, I just said yes because I'm so exhausted and..."

The woman shushed him. Despite his Scottish being broken by Russian words, she understood overall what he had said. And the tears in his big brown eyes were melting at her heart. "All right, laddie. Tell you what, you can spend the night here. I'll go fetch you some food and water, you look like walking bones. I'll also find some clean bandages and herbs for your leg. Wash yourself off and change into those clothes on the bed, and we'll discuss what to do with you in the morning."

"Thank you," Jackson whimpered. "Thank you so so much."

xxx

Somewhere along the coast of Norway, Hiccup and Astrid decided to land for the night. They spotted a nice, semi-flat, grassy place to make up camp and urged their dragons to fly downwards. It proved to be a good decision, as the nightfury and deadly nadder curled up and fell asleep the moment their riders climbed off their backs.

Astrid immediately set to work collecting twigs and small branches to start a fire. After a few minutes, she tossed her measly gatherings by Hiccup with an irritated groan, "I'm gonna go further into that forest to find some bigger branches. Get started on the fire with this, okay?"

"You got it," Hiccup grinned, finding a Y-shaped twig to begin building a tepee of twigs.

She frowned at the sleeping dragons, "I wish they hadn't fallen asleep so quickly... We'd have a fire in no time."

"You worry about getting more kindling," he reassured her. "I can get a fire started in no time."

After he was completely sure Astrid was out of sight, Hiccup took a deep, slightly anxious breath. He craned his neck to check one more time that she wasn't there. As he inhaled again, a heat began to flow from the pit of his stomach to his chest and up his throat. Raising his fingertips to his lips, he blew softly until he felt a tingling in his hand.

Fingers ablaze, he touched the tepee with the tiny flames until it ignited. He closed his fist around the fire in his hand to smother it.

Astrid didn't come running out of the forest demanding to know how he had just done that, so he allowed himself to relax.

With the small branches, he began to build another tepee over the burning one to help the fire grow. He barely even noticed when the flames licked at his hands.

"Wow, that was fast," Astrid commented, dropping the kindling by the fire.

"What did I say?" Hiccup replied with a smug grin. "I'm the best fire-starter in all of Berk."

"You _and Toothless_ are pretty great at setting _Berk_ on fire," Astrid replied, punching Hiccup in the arm.

"Hey now, don't give him all the credit," Hiccup laughed and rubbed his arm. "He didn't help me with this." He gestured at the fire.

Astrid smiled and nodded, "All right, I'll give you props for that."

As she warmed her hands over the fire, her smile faded into a haunted-looking expression.

"Hey, are you all right, Astrid?" Hiccup asked.

She nodded, but then said, "Did you know that DunBroch has a Princess?"

"No, I did not," Hiccup frowned. "Where.. Where did that come from?"

"I just can't help thinking about what it used to be like in Berk, before you and Toothless changed everything. What if that's the situation there?"

"We'll be able to handle it," Hiccup reassured her. "And I think if it were that bad the Queen probably would've actually mentioned dragons in her letter, don't you think? I mean, we did kind of jump to conclusions."

"I guess," Astrid hugged her knees to her chest. "But I keep imagining the Princess being just as terrified of dragons as I was."

Hiccup laughed, "If she's afraid of dragons in the same way you were then she's probably already killed a few by now."

"That's even worse!" Astrid cried. She winced as Stormfly stirred in her sleep. When the dragon relaxed and fell back asleep, Astrid whispered, "I guess I'm just projecting my own guilt onto her."

Hiccup reached over and squeezed her hand, "It's okay, Astrid. You don't need to feel guilty."

She nodded with a sigh.

xxx

The next morning, Hiccup woke up with Astrid curled up against him. He didn't really remember falling asleep.

"Hey. Hey, Astrid," Hiccup nudged the sleeping blonde. "Wake up."

She yawned and propped herself up with an arm, giving him a sleepy look, "What's going on?"

"We probably should start flying pretty soon," Hiccup replied, yawning himself. "To stay on schedule and all that."

"Yeah, I guess," Astrid stretched her arms out above her head before standing up.

Hiccup walked over to Toothless, who was still asleep, "Hey bud, time to get up, okay?"

The dragon growled and rolled over, refusing to open his eyes.

"Toothless!" Hiccup sighed.

After the long process of waking the dragons, Hiccup and Astrid finally managed to continue the rest of their journey to Scotland. After a long day of flying, they set up camp again. About an hour into their next day of flying, however, they finally spotted the coast of Scotland.

"Hiccup! Look!" Astrid called, gleefully.

"Woah," Hiccup was taken aback by how... green it all was. "This is amazing!"

"We're actually ahead of schedule," Astrid smiled. "We probably won't even have to camp tonight, I think we'll make it to Berk by sundown."

Hiccup grinned.

xxx

Jackson woke up surprisingly early considering how exhausted he had been the night before.

After dragging himself out of bed, he somehow found his way to the kitchen.

"Ah, Maudie told us about you!" one of the maids cooking said as he entered. "Sit down over there, I'll cook you something for breakfast."

It took Jack a beat too long to process her Scottish, but after he understood he replied gratefully, "Thank you, ma'am."

Within two minutes, there was a huge bowl of steaming porridge and a full plate of eggs and beans and meats in front of Jack. He gulped, but replied with another "thank you ma'am". His mother had told him stories off the weird foods the Scottish sometimes ate, so he was a bit nervous looking at the meaty pile in front of him. But, after he finished his porridge, he decided he was too famished to care.

"Sleep well, did you?" Maudie asked.

Jack nodded.

Maudie laughed, "You do know you were asleep for two days, right?"

Jack's wide-eyed expression answered her question.

"Well, the good news is that I talked to the King and Queen while you were resting," Maudie said. "I told them what you told me, and they've offered to let you stay and work as our stable hand. You wouldn't get paid much, but you'd get to stay in that room you've spent the past 48 hours in, and we'd serve you free meals every day. Does that sound good to you?"

Jack grinned, "Yes ma'am, that sounds wonderful!"

"The Queen would like to talk to you first, make sure you aren't here to seduce her daughter or anything," Maudie chuckled. Jack sensed that there was a backstory to that comment, but wasn't really interested in the explanation. "But you seem to be a fine lad, I'm sure she'll like you."

"Thank you, Maudie," he replied, laughing in relief. "I don't think I can ever repay you."

"Just don't be a menace around the castle," she warned. "I already have three eleven-year-old boys to deal with."

xxx

"Good morning Merida!" Rapunzel's singsong voice broke through Merida's cloud of sleep, waking her up.

As Rapunzel pulled aside the curtains to let in the sunshine, Merida groaned and covered her head with her pillow, swearing under her breath.

"C'mon, it's time to wake up," Rapunzel giggled.

"Oof," the princess huffed. "Why are _you_ so chipper this morning?"

Rapunzel paused for a moment, a thoughtful expression on her face. After the moment was over, she shrugged and smiled, "I just think today's going to be a really wonderful day."

Slowly but surely, Merida began to feel more awake. When she was awake enough to not be extremely grumpy and mean, she asked, "So, do I have something to do today?"

"Nope," Rapunzel replied. "And neither do I!"

"Is that why you're so happy?" Merida asked with a smirk.

"Oh no!" Rapunzel replied, shaking her head frantically. "I don't mind my chores. It's just a really nice day is all, and it's nice that I get to go outside for a while."

Merida shrugged and nodded. She could relate.

The brunette hummed as she took out a clean dress for Merida to wear riding.

"Hey, Rapunzel? Do you want to go riding with me today? Since you have the day off?"

Her green eyes widened, "Is there a horse for me to ride?"

"Sure there is," Merida chuckled. "Mum's horse had a baby a few years ago. Hans trained him."

Rapunzel wrinkled her nose, "If Hans trained it it'll probably try to marry me."

Merida chortled, "No worries, lassie. He's a good horse."

A few minutes later, Rapunzel sat astride the small white horse galloping after Angus. Merida giggled at how much shorter Maximus was compared to Angus, but Rapunzel didn't mind. She leaned closer to the horse and whispered, "I think you're just perfect." He whinnied with pride in response. Or, she pretended that's what it was.

Rapunzel watched in amazement as Merida shot arrow after arrow, hitting each target that she had set up for herself.

They finally ended up in a meadow alongside a cliff's edge. Merida jumped off Angus and sat down. Rapunzel carefully climbed off of Maximus and did a quick 'stay' gesture at the horse before joining the princess.

"This is where I normally see the dragons," Merida said, eyes focused on the sky.

"Really?" Rapunzel gasped. In her excitement, she accidentally whipped Merida in the face with her long braid. "..Oops."

Merida laughed and rubbed her nose, "If we stay here long enough I bet we'll get to see one."

xxx

"Why do the gods hate us?" Hiccup grumbled as he squinted in the darkness.

"Where did this storm even _come_ from?" Astrid cried, trying to shield her eyes with her hand.

Stormfly was screeching in fear, lurching with every clap of thunder or strike of lightning.

"It's okay, girl," Astrid tried to comfort the dragon. "I promise we'll be landing soon."

Toothless remained calm. Hiccup was grateful that his dragon was the unholy offspring of lightning and death. It made things like flying through a giant storm just a bit easier. Hiccup leaned down and asked the dragon, "Do you think you can see DunBroch from here?" In response, the dragon let out an ear-piercing screech to use his sonar to detect anything.

Toothless let out a sharp roar directed towards Stormfly, and she immediately flew closer to him with the intention to follow him. Hiccup concentrated on Toothless's flight motions so he wouldn't accidentally get flung off. It rarely happened, but Hiccup really _really_ didn't want to get lost in this storm.

Soaked, shaking, and sleepy, Hiccup and Astrid walked up to the palace gates. Toothless and Stormfly lifted their wings in an attempt to shield their humans from the downpour.

Hiccup's teeth were chattering as he spoke in his best Scottish to the guard, "We're here to see the Queen."

The guard gave him a skeptical look, "Of course ye are, everybody is. Who exactly are you?"

Astrid interjected before Hiccup, "I'm Chief Astrid Hofferson, and he's Chief Hiccup Haddock. We're from Berk, your Queen asked us to come."

"I was told you weren't going to arrive for another few days."

Toothless roared in frustration, wrinkling his snout at the man. Hiccup smirked at the man's wide-eyed, about-to-piddle expression.

"This is Toothless," Hiccup gestured towards the nightfury. "He's a dragon. Dragons travel a lot faster than you might expect."

"All right, all right," the man said. "I'll let you two in!"

"Thank you," Astrid and Hiccup both said.

As they walked through the gates into the palace, Hiccup put his arm protectively around the trembling Astrid, "I'm sorry we got caught in this storm."

"It's not your fault, Hiccup," Astrid laughed. "Last time I checked, you don't control the weather."

"You're right," Hiccup chuckled.

The two chiefs were led into the throne room. Hiccup gulped and Toothless snarled at all the stuffed bears decorating the room. He vaguely recalled hearing a legend about a "Bear King" from Scotland. Apparently it was the King of DunBroch.

A tall woman with fierce brown eyes and long brown hair that reached nearly to the floor strode into the room. Her expression softened when she saw the young, rain-drenched dragon-riders. "Oh my word! Did you two just arrive in this storm?"

"Unfortunately," Hiccup laughed. He let go of Astrid and held out his hand to shake, "I'm Chief Haddock, but you can just call me Hiccup. And this is Toothless." On cue, the dragon walked a bit closer.

"Hello, Hiccup and...er... Toothless," the Queen was very clearly holding back a laugh. She awkwardly shook his hand, staring at the wrappings around his upper arms with dragon thorns sticking out. Over the years, Hiccup had taken some style tips from his mother. She had told him that looking like a dragon would make new dragons feel more at ease around him. And it was true. But it didn't help new people feel at ease.

"Hello, your majesty," Astrid shook the Queen's hand as well. "I'm Chief Astrid Hofferson. And my dragon is named Stormfly."

The Queen smiled and replied, "Hello, Astrid and Stormfly. There's no need for such formalities, you may call me Elinor."

The chiefs nodded.

"Well, I'll have some servants fetch you some fresh clothes, if you'd like," Elinor said, peering around the room distractedly. "And they'll then show you to your chambers. I'm sure there's enough room in the stables for your dragons."

"Actually, I would prefer it if Toothless stayed with me," Hiccup said as Toothless bumped his head into Hiccup's leg. "I promise he's house-trained."

"Very well then," Elinor nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me please."

The Queen walked over to a servant woman and Hiccup overheard her ask, "Have they returned yet?"

The servant woman nodded, "They're just in the stables."

"Very good."

Hiccup and Astrid glanced at each other in confusion before being whisked off my some servants.

xxx

"Where have you been?" the Queen demanded, rushing over to her daughter and pulling her into a hug.

"Mum!" Merida gasped as she was suddenly crushed by her mother's arms.

"You had me worried sick!" her mother scolded.

Merida sighed, "I'm sorry! We were just out watching dragons and then this storm came out of nowhere!"

"Well, thank goodness you got home safely," Elinor sighed. She looked over at Rapunzel, who seemed to be staring off at nothing. "Rapunzel? You weren't hurt, right?"

Rapunzel's eyes widened, "Huh? Oh no! Of course not! I'm fine."

"Good," Elinor pulled her in and hugged her too.

Merida couldn't help but notice her mother's hair was damp from walking to the stables, and that she didn't even care about her dress getting soaked from Merida and Rapunzel.

"So, the new stable boy has the horses, yes?"

The princess nodded.

"Good, let's go back to the castle."

Later, Merida was roaming the hallways to find her way back to her room. On her way, she passed by the throne room, where someone was standing. She couldn't help but to poke her nose around the doorway and see who it was.

It was a tall-ish, skinny guy, with shaggy brown hair and a long black cloak with some sort of...fin sticking off his back. He was kneeling in front of...

She gasped.

 _A dragon._

Her eyes widened in amazement as she stared at the sleek, black creature. It wasn't nearly as menacing as she had expected. It honestly looked pretty adorable, like a giant cat with wings. She smiled as she watched the boy and the dragon. The boy was scratching the dragon playfully and the dragon was rolling around in glee. It was clear that the two had a very special bond. Without meaning to, she giggled.

He must've heard her, as he turned to look, bright green eyes meeting hers.

She quickly ducked around the corner and ran back to her room.

 **Hey guys! Thanks for following/favorite-ing/reviewing or whatever else you're doing! I'm gonna make it clear here: everything that seems vaguely Hicctrid-y is not romantic Hicctrid. In my mind, they're super close best friends who are really comfortable around each other. Mericcup is definitely the main ship in this fic. :) Until the next chapter, Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

_There was fire everywhere he could see. And the flames were getting closer and closer._

 _Barely conscious, the fire was the only thing he was aware of. The fire, and that he was falling._

 _Falling._

 _Falling._

 _Falling._

 _Everything was suddenly blistering and burning. His body was glowing bright orange with fire._

 _Even though he could feel himself slowly turning into ashes, he couldn't scream. He couldn't do anything._

 _He was the tiny flame clinging to the last bit of wicker in an already burned candle._

 _Out, out, brief candle._

 _His life became nothing but a walking shadow._

Hiccup woke with a start, causing Toothless to wake up and let out an agitated roar.

"I'm sorry, bud," Hiccup gasped, hugging his dragon's head. "It... It was just a dream."

Toothless looked at Hiccup in concern and curled around him protectively. Hiccup felt the tension in his chest slowly release, and he rested his head against the dragon.

 _Toothless saved you,_ Hiccup reminded himself. _It's okay._

xxx

"Och, it's _still_ raining?" Merida groaned and flung the curtains in frustration. "Why?"

Rapunzel shrugged, "Maybe today is the day you finally learn how to relax and sit still."

The brunette had been trying to braid Merida's hair up and out of her face, but Merida kept jumping up to check the weather outside. Eventually Rapunzel gave up and started braiding her own hair.

"Well, if the chiefs are going to sleep all day, it doesn't even matter what my hair looks like," the princess replied.

With a sigh, Rapunzel continued to plait her own long hair. Similarly to Elinor, Rapunzel had long, rich brown hair that nearly reached the floor. Only she kept hers in one long braid, rather than wrapping it into two thick half-braids. Merida glared, the tiniest bit jealous that Rapunzel could look so pretty so effortlessly and manage her hair so easily. But only the tiniest bit. Her appearance wasn't usually on her top ten things to worry about.

"You have a lot of hair," Merida commented when Rapunzel had finished.

Rapunzel paused and gave Merida an incredulous look.

"Och, you know I meant length-wise!"

The brunette stood up, barely containing her giggles, and grabbed onto one of Merida's curls. Slowly, she stretched the curl out until it was completely straight. There were four feet between the two girls. Rapunzel raised her eyebrows with a smirk.

"Oh, whatever," Merida fell backwards onto her bed.

"C'mon, Merida," Rapunzel urged the princess. "Your mum is going to kill me if I don't get your hair finished."

"No, she won't. She adores you."

Rapunzel glared. It was about as intimidating as a disgruntled kitten, but Merida sat up anyway. While Rapunzel attempted to part Merida's hair into sections, Merida stared out the window at the raging storm.

An hour later, Rapunzel flopped backwards. She gave up on the braid idea, and decided instead to simply wrap Merida's hair back in a similar fashion to the Queen, only with one huge chunk of hair rather than two.

"Well, at least wrapping it wasn't too hard," Rapunzel said, mostly to herself. "I can do that again."

"Hey! It's stopped raining!" Merida grinned and jumped up. "Wanna go for a ride, Rapunzel?"

Rapunzel groaned, "Do _you_?"

"Obviously!"

The brunette smiled despite herself, "Go talk to your mum first. If she says yes then fine."

"All right!" the princess ran from the room gleefully.

xxx

Jackson felt much more at ease now that the storm had stopped. Angus had been freaking out ever since the princess had ridden him home in the storm the night before. Now that there was no thunder to spook him, Jack set to work cleaning the mud and filth off of the huge horse. As he did, he talked to the horse in his gentlest voice, "It's all right, Angus. The storm's over, there's nothing to be afraid of. Besides, you're a pretty tough horse. Why would anything want to mess with you anyway? Everything should be scared of you, not the other way around. Silly horse."

Angus neighed and smacked Jack in the face with his tail.

"Thanks for that, buddy," Jack laughed and rubbed his nose. After what felt like forever, he managed to scrub the last bit of muck from the steed.

Just as he lifted the bucket of muddy water, he heard the princess's voice calling, "Oi! Mister Stableboy? Are you there?"

Jack suppressed an eye roll and called out in a slightly-mocking tone, "I'm _in the stables_ , Princess!"

Right on cue, the redheaded girl strode in to the stables confidently, "We're going for a ride."

"Princess, I _just_ cleaned-" Jack began, but he realized mid-sentence that she was going to ignore him. Instead, he sighed, "Would you like me to saddle up Angus?"

She laughed, "Angus doesn't have a saddle."

Jack frowned. But before he could reply, something bright blue appeared before him. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Merida was whispering to her horse, so she hadn't noticed the glowing wisp. Discreetly, he reached forward to touch it and made it disappear. Another appeared closer to the entrance to the stables. He watched as it blinked away right as a second girl walked in to the stables.

He gulped as her wide, bright green eyes met his. She blinked and stared back, with what he hoped was the same awe he was feeling. His heart began to beat faster and faster the longer he looked at her. He forgot about everything, including the bucket of mud in his hands.

He didn't realize it was slipping until it was too late, "Neht!"

SPLAT!

Jackson squeezed his eyes shut as mud splattered all over him. His face flushed and he quickly grabbed the bucket and turned away. To no one in particular, he mumbled, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

He heard the princess chortle, and his face grew even hotter.

"Merida," the other girl chastised softly.

He had no idea what to do, he didn't know where everything was yet, so he couldn't try to clean himself. Did he really want to clean himself in front of the princess and her pretty friend? Why hadn't they left yet?

"Do you need help?" a gentle voice asked.

"Neht... I mean, no," Jack winced.

And then there were soft towels being handed to him. He glanced up and found himself staring into the emerald eyes again.

"Thank you," he whispered, still blushing.

The girl bit her lip in hesitation before saying, "Merida? You go ahead without me. If you want I'll meet you in the meadow soon."

Merida shrugged, already mounted on Angus, "I don't feel like going there today, you just stay here. I'll be back soon."

After the princess was gone, Jack felt just the tiniest bit better. But his face was still bright red, and his stomach was burning with regret.

"Do you mind?" the girl asked, gently raising a towel to his face.

"G-go ahead."

She giggled and helped him clean off the really big splatters as best as she could, "Hopefully it won't stain."

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Jack shrugged. "I'm not too heartbroken."

"Fair enough.."

He was at a loss for words, so he just awkwardly stared at his slightly shaking hands.

"My name is Rapunzel," she finally said. "What's yours?"

Jack hesitated, but he realized that it was too late to come up with a fake identity since he already told Maudie who he was, "Jackson. But you can just call me the stable boy." He forced a grin, but instantly regretted it. He hadn't truly smiled in so long, he probably wasn't even capable of producing anything better than a toothy grimace.

"I'm not going to call you that," she laughed. "Can I call you Jack?"

"If you'd like, ma'am," Jack replied. His heart was still racing, but he didn't want to take deep, calming breaths in front of her.

She shrugged, "Whatever you prefer."

"I... I uhm..." he rubbed the back of his neck. "I need to go put some fresh hay in Angus's stable. He was pretty spooked last night, and it's kind of nasty."

He mentally slapped his own forehead.

Rapunzel laughed, "Angus can be pretty skittish. Let me help."

"You really don't have to," he anxiously stepped backwards. "I mean... It's kind of gross. The stable. Not you helping me. You helping me would be nice, but... I mean..."

She grabbed a rake, "I've done it before. It's not a big deal."

The two of them being so close made Jack feel as if he were buzzing with electricity. He couldn't help but to stare at her, but quickly look away when she glanced back.

 _Did that wisp appear because of her?_ he couldn't help but wonder.

After they had finished cleaning Angus's stable, there was nothing left for them to do. Jackson felt himself blush slightly as he found himself staring into her summery green eyes once more. A strand of her hair had loosened from her plait and fallen into her face. Without thinking, Jack reached forward and tucked it back into place as best as he could. An adorable pink blush crept across her cheeks.

He tentatively offered her a smile, one that almost felt natural.

She beamed.

xxx

Hiccup was surprised he and Toothless had managed to sneak out of the palace. The moment the storm had ceased, the dragon and the boy had escaped to go fly.

The evening before, Queen Elinor encouraged Hiccup and Astrid to rest and recover, there was no rush to start discussing treaties and whatnot. Astrid took full advantage of this, and was snoring away every time Hiccup checked on her. He theorized that she was likely catching up from months of not sleeping well enough. Ever since she had offered to help Hiccup run the land, she had put her duties as chief over her needs as a human. Hiccup and Eret tried to encourage her to relax, but she refused to listen to both. It twisted Hiccup's stomach into guilty knots every time he thought about it.

The air was warm and heavy from the recent rain. The dark grey clouds loomed just above Hiccup's head, threatening more rain. Hiccup sighed and urged Toothless to fly a bit lower. Up ahead, he noticed a large clearing with tall stones rising from the ground. Toothless seemed to notice too, and the dragon began to fly towards it.

Racing along the ground, he spotted a figure astride a large horse galloping towards the clearing as well.

Before Hiccup could change his mind, Toothless had already landed.

There was a loud neighing and a thump as the rider was thrown from the horse.

"Angus!" the rider-a girl-cried.

"Oh my gods, I am so sorry!" Hiccup gasped, rushing to unlatch his prosthetic and run towards the girl.

She sat up and pulled down her hood, revealing a bush of curly, fire-red hair. She didn't even glance at Hiccup's outstretched hand, instead just stood and wiped her hands off on her dress. She furrowed her eyebrows, "Wait, you're the Chief!"

"I... Uh..." Hiccup's eyes widened and he looked away awkwardly.

"And that's your dragon!" she gasped, looking over his shoulder with wide eyes.

Toothless perked up and walked over to the girl with an excited expression.

"This is Toothless," Hiccup smiled.

"Can I..?" she cautiously reached her hand out. Before Hiccup could respond, Toothless nudged her hand with her nose, giving her silent permission to pet him.

"So... Who are you?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh! I'm the Princess!" she replied, slightly distracted by the happy night fury. "I s'pose we didn't properly meet last night. You met my mum though."

Hiccup froze, then awkwardly attempted to bow, "I'm sorry! I had no idea! And I scared your horse too.. Oh gods.."

The Princess chortled, "Angus? He's fine! He'd spook just as bad from a couple of wisps!"

He decided not to ask what she meant by wisps. He looked back to see that the large, black horse was cautiously poking it's head around one of the stones to look at the night fury.

"S'okay, Angus," she called soothingly to the horse. She laughed and rolled her eyes when the horse refused to budge. To Hiccup, she said, "Soo.. D'you go by Haddock? Or do you have a nickname?"

Hiccup felt a blush creep across his cheeks, "Uh... Haddock is my last name.. I'm Hiccup."

"Hiccup?" she tilted her head with a doubtful expression. "You're joking..."

"No.. Viking parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls," he shrugged. "Like our charming viking demeanor wouldn't do that."

She snorted, "Gnomes and trolls?"

"Trolls exist!" Hiccup insisted. "They steal your socks!" He cringed inwardly as he realized he was channeling Gobber.

"Well, I guess I _have_ seen crazier things," she smiled. " _I_ am Merida."

"Nice to meet you, Princess Merida," he grinned.

xxx

When Merida returned to the stables, Rapunzel was lying on her side in a pile of clean hay facing the stable boy. He was talking animatedly to her, hands gesturing wildly.

Unsure of what to do, she tried to lead Angus to his pen as quietly as she could. Her mother had told her to be extra kind to the stable boy, although she didn't give a reason, and Merida didn't want to ruin his obviously good mood.

"Merida!" Rapunzel smiled, although she looked a bit disappointed. "Welcome back!"

The stable boy's disappointment was far more obvious, but it vanished to neutrality once he noticed Merida looking at him. He stood, "Let me, Princess." He gently took Angus and began to clean the slightly-muddy horse.

"Don't drop the bucket this time," Merida couldn't help but say, ignoring Rapunzel's disapproving look.

He tensed, but didn't respond.

After returning to Merida's room, Rapunzel asked, rather distractedly, "How was your ride, Princess?"

"Pretty good," Merida shrugged. "I ran into the Chief of Berk. He was out flying on his dragon."

Rapunzel's eyes widened, "His _dragon?_ What was it like?"

Merida giggled thinking about the funny creature, "He honestly looked like a giant black kitten. Acted like one, too. Spooked Angus, of course."

"Of course."

A thoughtful expression danced across her features as she thought about the chief. He was admittedly a bit scrawnier than she had imagined, but she saw that last night. Finally, she said, "He's really not what I expected from such a legendary chief. I don't even think he's much older than us."

Rapunzel shrugged, "Is it a bad not-what-you-expected?"

Merida shook her head with a tiny smile, "No. Not at all bad."

xxx

Astrid was awake the next time Hiccup looked in on her. He smiled and sat next to her.

She rubbed her eyes sleepily, "What's going on?"

"I just got back from a short ride," Hiccup shrugged. "Sleep well?"

She nodded slowly, "How.." she yawned. "How was your ride?"

"Pretty good, I met the Princess," he nodded. "I think you'll like her."

"Uh huh..." she was already dozing off again.

"She's not quite what I expected, considering she's a princess. She reminded me of you. And.. my dad..." Hiccup trailed off as he realized she was curling up again. He chuckled and pulled the blanket up over her, "Thanks for being such a great listener."

She nodded and 'mhmmm'd softly.

With another small smile, he said, "Goodnight Astrid."

 **Noctus Fury: Astrid is also chief because she offered to help him. In a way, she's sort of the Gobber to Hiccup's Stoic. But Hiccup wanted to name her an official chief because of how hard she works. Thanks for reviewing**

 **dracologistmaster: Thanks! But sorry, the meeting is in the next chapter heh..**

 **Thanks to everyone for reading and whatnot, it's much appreciated! Bye for now!**


	4. Chapter 4

Merida couldn't help but to fidget in her seat. She and her mother were seated in the throne room, although it had been rearranged slightly to accommodate for the chiefs. A rounded table had been brought in with four regal chairs sat around it for the four leaders to discuss. Elinor had tutted slightly over Fergus's absence, but the Bear King had left on a hunting trip with the Lords and told the Queen and Princess to carry on without him.

The princess wondered how her father would react to seeing the Great Chief of Berk. She vaguely recalled a war story he used to tell about a man, Stoic the Vast. He was a brutal viking that had led the invasions shortly after the Highlands denied the vikings access to the land. "The dragons! They're too much, they killed my wife and nearly my child too. Can't you do anything?!" Chief Stoic had cried in desperation. There was such a great fire raging in his heart that Stoic nearly killed Fergus. Fergus never knew why the viking had spared him, but he was grateful to be alive.

That viking was the former Chief of Berk. That terrifying legend that used to scare Merida into hiding beneath her covers was the father of... Hiccup.

Merida cracked a smile just thinking of his name. It was so silly! But the name suited the viking, strangely enough.

Both Elinor and Merida looked up quickly at the sound of the heavy doors being pushed open.

Hiccup grunted slightly, but managed to push the door open far enough for him and a blonde girl to slip through. Merida smiled the tiniest bit at the sight of the brown-haired chief.

Elinor stood up graciously with a bright smile.

"Good afternoon, your majesty!" Hiccup smiled and bowed.

The blonde elbowed him and hissed, "Hiccup, it's still morning."

"Oh, is it?" Hiccup asked, looking at her with furrowed eyebrows.

Her blue eyes widened in exasperation. She shook her head and put on a bright smile as she bowed before the Queen, "Your majesty."

"Good afternoon, Hiccup," Elinor chuckled. "Good morning, Astrid. Allow me to introduce you to my daughter, Princess Merida. She will be included in this treaty meeting, if it's not any trouble."

"It's not any trouble at all! In fact, I've already had the pleasure of meeting her," Hiccup smiled at the princess.

Merida's smile grew.

"Well, I haven't. It's very nice to meet you, Princess Merida," Astrid nodded.

Merida nodded, "Nice to meet you too."

"Well, now that we've all been formally introduced, let us begin our discussions!" Elinor put her hands together and sat down, expression suggesting the others should sit as well.

Merida couldn't help but to notice that the seat Hiccup chose was the one across from her, rather than the one next to her. She met his intense green gaze and inhaled sharply. His eyes were a completely different green than Rapunzel's. Rapunzel had eyes the green of a grassy field on a warm spring day. Hiccup's eyes were more... magical. They were like precious stones hidden away in a dragon's treasure trove, polished and clear, and unnervingly mesmerizing.

"As you might've known, the people of DunBroch have recently began to spot dragons in the outer regions of our kingdom. So far, there have been no reports of attacks or injuries, but it's still a bit frightening, especially to those of us whom have never dealt with a dragon before."

"We understand," Hiccup nodded. "However, I'm sure you'll find that dragons aren't much to be afraid of. Once you've earned their trust, they'll do anything for you. They're more loyal than a family dog and much more protective."

Elinor laughed, "Well, you see, I don't know if we want what you Berkians have. The people of DunBroch aren't too thrilled about the dragons flying through our skies, let alone possibly becoming a permanent part of our lifestyle."

Merida faltered, "Wait, you want to get rid of them?"

"Of course! I was hoping you two would have the knowledge on how to encourage the dragons to migrate back to Berk!"

Hiccup and Astrid bore similar expressions of shock.

Astrid finally spoke, "Once your people grow accustomed to dragons they won't even be able to remember a day without them. In Berk, we used to fight dragons, and train ourselves to kill them. I almost killed Stormfly during a training exercise, thank Thor I didn't, but that version of myself seems like a dream. I can't even believe I used to think they were monsters."

Elinor hesitated, "I'm just a bit wary. We've had a lot of...mysterious things happen in our kingdom. Just recently we've rid ourselves of a demon bear. I don't think the people are ready to ride dragons the way you two do."

Hiccup sighed, "Well.. I suppose it's not really our job to tell you how to run your kingdom. So, we help migrate the dragons. What else?"

"Well, obviously I would like to begin trading with you once again. We have a lot of coal and zinc mined here, as well as..."

"Mum?" Merida interrupted.

"Yes dear?"

"Wouldn't it be beneficial to learn how to train the dragons even if we want them to migrate away?"

Elinor's response was an incredibly lost expression.

"Well... Unless we want to call back Astrid and Hiccup every single time we see a dragon. I was just thinking, what if there are more dragons coming? It'd just be better for us to learn the ways of the dragons, so when they return home we can handle it ourselves."

"I suppose," Elinor looked thoughtful.

"I think that's a good idea," Astrid agreed.

Hiccup grinned at the Princess.

Elinor nodded decisively, "Well, Merida, if you would like to learn how to train dragons, I would agree that it would be beneficial. Now, about the other terms of the treaty..."

Merida zoned out a bit. She lost herself in daydreams of flying through an endless sky on the back of a powerful dragon.

She was so lost in her own head, she didn't even notice Hiccup staring at her with a goofy smile on his face.

xxx

After the meeting had been concluded for the day, the three young adults left the throne room together.

"So, we get to teach a new recruit how to train dragons," Astrid smirked. Excitement was pooling in her belly. Most of the vikings already knew how to ride dragons, and the ones that didn't weren't quite old enough to teach yet. The thought of seeing the excitement in a new-rider's eyes thrilled her.

Merida glanced at the vikings, "Is it really difficult?"

"It can be," Hiccup shrugged. "It depends on your personality, and if it meshes well with the dragon. It took a while for Snotlout to really get the hang of it just because he and his dragon butted heads. But Fishlegs learned really quickly, and his dragon is probably the sweetest gronkle in Berk."

"Ruffnut and Tuffnut got it the fastest, which is kind of surprising," Astrid added. "But their dragon is just as ridiculous as they are, so that's probably why."

Merida wrinkled her nose slightly in reaction to hearing the other viking's names. Who would've thought "Hiccup" and "Astrid" would have the most normal-sounding names out of them all? She shrugged it off and asked, "So... Do you think I'll be good at it? What kind of a dragon will I get to ride?"

"Well, the first dragon you train will depend on what dragon I can find," Hiccup laughed. "I was gonna go scouting on Toothless. Do you want to come with me, Astrid?"

Merida felt her heart sink a tiny bit. She had been hoping to talk to the chiefs for a while longer.

Astrid glanced at the princess, "I think I'll stay and talk to Merida. We'll go visit Stormfly!"

"That sounds like a plan! I'll be back later then," Hiccup gave a dorky, two-fingered salute and jogged away.

The blonde turned to the redhead with a smile, "So, Princess Merida. How would you like to come meet my dragon?"

Merida's eyes flashed, "Can I?"

"Of course," Astrid laughed. "C'mon!"

The princess followed the chieftess excitedly. When she entered the large chambers reserved for Astrid, she took a step back in awe.

The dragon sleeping by the fire was the most incredible thing Merida could imagine. It was mostly a light blue color, but it's leathery wings looked almost as if they were painted with browns and yellows and oranges. It had a huge horn curving back over it's rather large head, and several spikes jutted out menacingly. Merida's eyes trailed along the rest of the dragon. Its tail was a bright yellow, but something about it looked strange.

"Stormfly, wake up, girl!" Astrid touched the dragon gently. "I want you to meet someone!"

The dragons pure-yellow eyes snapped open. Merida's heart skipped a beat as lethal-looking spikes shot from the yellow tail. It hopped to its feet in a way that reminded the princess of a bird, and it began to walk towards her, tilting its head inquisitively.

"Hello.." Merida gulped.

"Stormfly, this is Princess Merida," Astrid gently guided the princess a bit closer. She whispered, "Hold out your hand."

Hesitantly, Merida held up her arm and stretched out her hand towards the dragon. To her relief and excitement, the dragon nudged forward and touched it's horned nose to hers. She smiled, "Wow.. She's beautiful, Astrid."

"Thank you," Astrid looked extremely proud. "She's a deadly nadder. Hiccup told me he spotted quite a few around here, so this is probably the kind of dragon we'll be teaching you with."

"Thank you for letting me meet her."

xxx

Rapunzel paused for a moment to gather her courage. After (most) of her anxious tummy knots were gone, she pushed the door to the stables open.

At first, it seemed to be empty. She deflated slightly, realizing she had spent the past few minutes pep-talking herself for nothing.

"Rapunzel?" Jackson's funny mop of brown hair appeared from behind a pile of hay. Rapunzel giggled to herself as the rest of his smiling face appeared. "I wasn't expecting company," he laughed quietly, casually attempting to brush some of the straw from his hair. "Are you and Merida going for a ride?"

"No, Merida is still in a meeting with her mum and the chiefs," Rapunzel shrugged.

He nodded slowly. After a moment, he smirked, "Where are my manners? Come, sit anywhere you'd like! We've got lots of hay!"

She smiled and plopped down in the hay with him, "You're a wonderful host."

"I'd offer to make you a big fancy meal, but all I have is oats," he joked.

"I'm fine, thank you."

After a moment, she worked up enough courage to ask, "Where did you come from?"

Jack's amber eyes widened, "What.. What do you mean?"

"Well... Your Scottish really is excellent, but there's something about your timbre that makes it sound odd," she said, carefully. Quickly, she added, "Only sometimes."

He pursed his lips for a moment before answering, "I'm from a small village just outside of Novorossiysk. So, yeah. Scottish isn't my first language."

"Where is Novoro...sika..." Rapunzel wrinkled her nose slightly as she stumbled over the word.

He couldn't help but smile, "It's in Russia." With a mischievous smile, he whispered, "So my first language is Russian."

Rapunzel's eyes widened, "Russia? How did you end up here?"

Jack's expression darkened. He opened his mouth, as if to answer, but he instead furrowed his eyebrows and looked away from her curious stare.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry.." a huge knot of regret twisted up her tummy. "You don't have to tell me about it."

He closed his eyes and let out a small sigh, "It's just a little too soon. I promise I'll tell you one day, okay?"

"Okay."

Rapunzel furrowed her eyebrows in worry at his still-sad expression. Without thinking, she reached over and took his hand in hers. His eyes snapped open and he looked at their hands almost in disbelief. Embarrassed, Rapunzel tried to pull her hand back, but he held it tight. He met her worried gaze and gave her a reassuring smile.

xxx

After a lot of searching, Hiccup finally managed to lead a dragon back to DunBroch. The peaceful-looking hobblegrunt was a lovely shade of purple, which made Hiccup feel at ease. Even when he had approached the dragon, it hadn't turned its scales into a threatening red, so Hiccup didn't feel too worried about it hurting Merida. Astrid, however, had a very different feeling.

"You want to start her off with a hobblegrunt? Are you _serious?"_ she demanded the moment she saw the new dragon.

"Well, it was the first one I found that wasn't aggressive," Hiccup shrugged. "Besides, it seems to like it here."

It was true, the dragon was currently rolling around in the lush grass happily, it's scales slowly turning into a content yellow.

"I think she can handle it," Hiccup smiled.

"I don't know about-"

Merida approached, and Astrid quieted. The princess smiled at the two chiefs and greeted them.

"All right, Merida," Hiccup said, clapping his hands together. "This is a hobblegrunt. It's not too dangerous, and this one seems very peaceful."

The dragon had rolled back to it's feet and was sniffing the air.

"Astrid showed you what you're supposed to do, right?" Hiccup asked.

Merida gulped and nodded. She eyed the Hobblegrunt uncertainly. It quirked its head to the side, staring right back at her.

Hiccup gave the princess a reassuring smile, "Don't worry. See how it's purple?"

"Yes..."

"Purple scales mean it's feeling curious. He's not going to hurt you. And, trust me, if he gets scared I'll jump in and help," Hiccup said.

"Why can't you just train the dragons for us?" Merida asked, a sudden wave of anxiety washing over her. Stormfly had been one thing, the nadder had already been trained and Merida had merely put her hand on the dragon's face. And was training a dragon really as simple as placing a hand on its face?

"You said you wanted to learn," Astrid shrugged. She was attempting to smirk, but couldn't manage more than a small, concerned smile.

The princess glared at the chieftess, but then took a deep breath to calm herself. Slowly, she walked towards the dragon with her hand outstretched the way she had with Stormfly. The hobblegrunt lowered its head to be more at her level, which she took to be a good sign.

 _It's teeth are as long as my hands,_ she thought to herself. Immediately, she regretted thinking that. She withdrew her hand slightly, an unfamiliar feeling making her belly feel tight. _I don't think I'm ready for this..._

Astrid glanced at Hiccup with a worried expression, but he shook his head slightly to prevent her from jumping in.

The dragon made a coo-ing sound and flapped its wings twice.

Merida looked at Hiccup, eyes full of uncertainty. He smiled and gestured for her to continue.

She walked a bit closer to the purple dragon until she was nearly in arm's reach. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and stretched out her hand. After what felt like an eternity, something scaly nudged against her hand. She opened her eyes to see the hobblegrunt's nose touching her hand gently, eyes closed in content.

"Did... Did I do it?" Merida asked, quietly.

"You've earned his trust," Hiccup smiled and slowly approached the dragon as well. "You just need to learn how to ride him now."

"Great," Merida replied with a bit more snark than she intended.

Hiccup touched her shoulder gently, and a strange calm settled over her. He nodded reassuringly, "You're going to be great."

 **dracologistmaster: that'll definitely be a thing in a future chapter!**

 **Noctus Fury: it's more that I headcanon Eret as having extreme respect for Astrid that's also a tiny bit of a crush. It's only implied a little bit, Astrid is mainly an independent viking chief in this. And yeah, I admit the last chapter was a bit rushed, I was just excited to start introducing characters to each other and whatnot. Thanks again!**

 **Thanks to all the people reading! Bye for now!**


	5. Chapter 5

For once, the princess was already awake when the queen went to wake her. Elinor looked at her daughter in surprise, "Merida! You're awake?"

Merida's blue eyes were wide and sparkling, "Yes ma'am!"

"Is Rapunzel awake?" Elinor peered over at the door leading to Rapunzel's chambers. When she saw that the eighteen year old was still sleeping, she looked back in confusion, "What are you doing up so early?"

"Hiccup thinks I'm ready to fly for real," Merida beamed. "Astrid is going to come by soon so we can meet him down by the stables."

Elinor's eyebrows furrowed, "Fly? You mean on a dragon?"

"Yes."

"Merida, you were supposed to learn how to keep them from attacking and get them to migrate elsewhere..." Elinor spoke carefully, not awake enough to deal with the princess arguing with her. "I don't remember learning how to fly being part of that."

"Well... Maybe not..." the princess shrugged. "But why shouldn't I? I know you don't want dragons to become part of our lives, but I don't think it'd be such a bad idea. It's better to have them on our side, don't you think?"

Elinor sighed and shook her head slightly, "Aye, it probably would be better, but I don't think it's safe. I don't know if I'm comfortable having you fly a dragon."

"Hiccup will be there," Merida protested gently. "He would never let anything happen to me."

She thought back to the day before when she had learned how to properly ride the hobblegrunt, and Hiccup helped her fly in circles very low to the ground. She noticed how Hiccup's body was always braced to potentially catch her, and how carefully he guided the dragon. That combined with the extreme caution in his green eyes made her feel so much safer than she had expected. It never even occurred to her to be scared of the dragon at that point.

"I'm sure, but there's only so much he can do," Elinor clasped her hands together nervously. "Like if you were to fall? It's not as if he could fly and catch you."

"He could catch me on Toothless," Merida shrugged.

"Merida.."

"Mum," Merida spoke as calmly as she possibly could. "I swear, I'm going to be just fine. Just trust me, okay? Hiccup even made me a saddle last night, it's even safer than riding Angus!"

A smile twitched at the corners of the queen's lips, "All right, but don't push it, all right? I don't want you getting hurt. Not even a bruise."

"Not even a bruise," Merida repeated with a smile.

xxx

Merida's eyes were shining with wonder. The dragon's scales were turning yellow with a happiness to match the rider's. There were moments riding Angus when Merida felt weightless, but never to this extent. Unable to keep the smile off her face, the princess reached up and brushed her hand through the clouds. The wispy nature of the sky tickled her fingers, and she laughed.

"This is amazing!" she yelled above the wind. "Woohoo!"

Hiccup caught himself smiling at the princess. He shook his head and chuckled. He remembered how giddy he was the first time he rode Toothless. He pet Toothless absentmindedly, and the dragon chirped happily in response.

Astrid thought back to her first dragon ride, how scared she was at first until it eventually became one of the best nights of her life. She glanced at Hiccup and smiled softly. Part of her wished there was some way to thank him for opening her eyes to this whole new world, but a bigger part of her knew she could never express that much gratitude.

Hiccup gently guided Toothless to fly closer to Merida, "How ya feeling, Mer?"

The princess looked up at Hiccup and laughed, "Great!"

"Great," Hiccup laughed. "I guess you're not ready to land yet?"

"Of course not!"

Astrid and Stormfly flew closer as well, "Should we fly higher?"

Hiccup's eyes widened and he quickly responded, "No, no I really don't want to push it."

"Well, then maybe we should land soon," Astrid replied, to Merida's dismay.

The chief noticed the princess's face fall and said, "We're pretty far away from DunBroch, we'll still be flying for a while if we turn around now."

Astrid raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Well, I suppose you're right," Merida shrugged. She felt the hobblegrunt almost breathe a sigh of relief. She frowned, but didn't think about it for too long.

"Hey, I have an idea," Astrid's eyes shone wickedly. "How about we race back?"

Hiccup tried to protest, but Merida's enthusiastic "Yeah!" cut him off.

"Wait, wait I don't know, do you really feel ready for that?" Hiccup asked worriedly.

"Yes!" Merida nodded, not noticing the hobblegrunt's small sound of distress.

"C'mon, Hic," Astrid taunted. "Scared of being shown up by a new-rider?"

Hiccup smirked, "Oh please, neither of you even have a chance. Fine, I'll race you."

The girls grinned at each other.

"Okay," Astrid counted off. "One... Two... THREE!"

Without any hesitation, Toothless burst forward, flying at a speed Merida didn't think was possible. He was so fast there was a high-pitched sound ringing through the air for a moment before they were out of sight.

"C'mon!" Astrid shouted back at Merida. "Don't let him win!"

Merida urged her dragon to fly faster... faster... faster... She didn't pay any attention to the dragon's scales as spots of orange began to break the yellow.

Within moments, the castle of DunBroch was in sight, so Toothless began to slow. Hiccup glanced over his shoulder and laughed, neither Astrid nor Merida were even approaching, they were still so far behind. Hiccup grinned smugly, "I'm surprised they don't know not to go up against a nightfury."

Toothless made a sound that resembled laughing.

Hiccup's smile slowly faded, "You know.. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave them behind like that. We kinda proved that we're better, don't you think? We should maybe go back, just so Merida isn't out of our sight. Okay, bud?"

Just as they began to fly back, Merida's voice rang out through the air, "HICCUP!"

"Merida!" Hiccup gasped. "Toothless! Go!"

The nightfury sped up, roaring anxiously. He jerked to a sudden halt when the two other dragons came into view. The hobblegrunt's scales had morphed into a fiery red. Hiccup saw the princess desperately trying to hang on as the dragon lashed out, flapping his wings and roaring in distress. Stormfly was circling around, roaring in confusion as Astrid tried to figure out what to do.

Hiccup's heart stopped as the red dragon flung Merida from his back.

Hiccup lost all thought. He locked Toothless's tail into place and jumped.

He quickly activated his "flying-squirrel" suit and angled his body to soar towards the screaming Merida. When the two crashed into each other, they each let out a yelp of pain. Hiccup wrapped his arms around her, apologizing rapidly under his breath. Merida clutched at him, her entire body noticeably shaking.

"Don't worry," Hiccup tried to reassure her, something that was incredibly hard to do considering how quickly the ground was coming up to meet him. Taking a deep breath to brace himself, he flipped them so his back was to the approaching impact. Merida didn't have time to protest. Hiccup closed his eyes and crashed to the ground.

Merida gasped and scrambled off of Hiccup as quickly as she could. She covered her mouth with her hands, tears pricking in her eyes as she stared at Hiccup's motionless form. Merida looked around, clinging to some impossible hope that someone would be nearby to help. To her disgust, she saw that they were in the center of the strange stones... The place where they had first met. She shook her head, "Oh my gods this is all my fault! Hiccup! Hiccup, please be okay!"

Toothless landed next to his fallen rider and let out a small roar. He rushed over to Hiccup and nudged the human with his nose.

After what felt like an eternity, Hiccup inhaled sharply and slowly began to sit up.

Although Merida brushed it off as a trick of the light, when Hiccup's eyes opened they were glowing for the briefest moment.

"What?" he smirked at Merida's expression. "Don't you know it takes more than a crash landing to hurt me?"

Merida shook her head, unable to speak.

A roar from above caught Hiccup's attention. He jumped to his feet... foot... and grabbed Merida, pulling her to her feet, "C'mon Mer, go hide behind one of the stones. Now!"

She hid just as the hobblegrunt landed.

Hiccup took a defensive stance and held his hands up in an attempt to calm the dragon. Like he had so many times before, he attempted to calm the dragon simply with motions and a trusting stare.

The hobblegrunt roared and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, we pushed you too hard today. I'm sorry," Hiccup spoke as softly as he could. "But, I promise, we didn't mean to hurt you. Merida is actually really great, and she definitely didn't mean to upset you in any way. Let's all just relax and-"

The hobblegrunt roared even louder, cutting Hiccup off. It lunged.

Hiccup couldn't remember what happened after, all he could remember was red.

xxx

Merida gave Hiccup one last sad look before closing her bedroom door.

Hiccup sighed and whispered, "I'm so... so sorry."

He had walked with the shaking princess back to the castle, knowing she probably didn't even want to ride Toothless. Almost immediately, a small brown-haired girl had run up to walk with Merida. Hiccup walked alongside the two girls, not wanting to leave Merida's side until he knew she was somewhere safe.

Now that she was safe, he just stood outside her door, unsure of what to do.

Astrid had decided to stay with the dragons, so Hiccup wondered if he should go find her.

As he wandered the forest looking for his friend, he found himself muttering under his breath, "Way to go Hiccup. You almost got the Princess of DunBroch killed. That's a perfect way to make the queen want to stay allies. Ugh." In frustration, he smacked a low-hanging branch. It immediately whipped back and smacked him in the face. "Yeah.. I guess I deserve that," he rubbed his face and sighed.

In a clearing not too far from the castle, he found Astrid. The hobblegrunt was peacefully sleeping in a protective circle around the viking, while Toothless and Stormfly played and wrestled. Before Hiccup could say anything to let her know he was there, Astrid looked up and saw him.

"How did you do that?" Astrid demanded, jumping to her feet and pulling out her axe.

"Hello to you too," Hiccup scoffed, but he couldn't keep himself from eyeing the axe nervously.

She glared and tightened her grip on the weapon, "Hiccup. How. Did. You. Do. That?"

He shrugged defensively, "Are you asking how I got here? Just because I only have one leg doesn't mean I can't walk."

"You wrestled a dragon. And _won._ Start talking."

Hiccup tried to remember what he had done after the dragon had attacked him, but nothing came to mind. All he knew was that when he had regained his senses, the hobblegrunt was subdued. He shook his head and gave another small shrug.

"Hiccup," Astrid gave him a very serious look. "What are you hiding?"

"N-nothing."

She sighed in exasperation, "I just don't understand. Why are you as strong as a dragon? How did you even survive that fall in the first place? That's all I want to know."

"Astrid, I don't really even remember what actually happened," Hiccup replied, trying to keep the defensive edge out of his voice. "It was probably just adrenaline."

She scoffed.

"I am a viking, you know. Is it really that surprising that I can take on a dragon?"

Astrid gave him a look, "Just because you're a viking doesn't mean you're not also a talking fishbone."

"Thanks, Astrid. I really appreciate that," he rolled his eyes.

She threw her hands up in frustration, and Hiccup jumped back from the axe she accidentally swung, "You should've at least broken a bone or something from falling!" Her eyes suddenly filled with worry. "Are you sure you're not hurt? Maybe you just didn't realize it before?"

Hiccup nodded dismissively, "I definitely would've felt it by now." Hoping to change the subject, he knelt before the sleeping dragon. "If he's calm now, I need to go back sure the stable boy is okay with letting him stay the night again."

"Why?"

Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows, "So Merida can try to ride him again when she's ready."

"Hiccup, I think we need to let him go. He clearly didn't like Merida, and I doubt he's going to like you too much when he wakes up," Astrid was watching the dragon very closely for signs of waking up, growing nervous that it would wake up and attack Hiccup again. "Merida can try again with a less-dangerous dragon. There have to be some gronkles out there.. Right?"

"No, no I think this dragon is supposed to stay here," Hiccup shook his head.

Astrid sighed, "And what makes you think that?"

"Just a feeling. I'm going to go talk to the stable boy, I'll be back soon."

xxx

Jackson stared at the door, unable to fight the empty feeling in his chest. He wished Rapunzel hadn't left, that she was still lying in the hay with him, asking him questions and giggling at his stories. Even though his time traveling the world had been traumatic and short-lived,Rapunzel was still so eager to listen to his "adventures". (He hadn't told her the reason why he "traveled", he still wasn't ready.) He hadn't been surprised to learn that Rapunzel had never left DunBroch, but he had been a bit surprised at how much she seemed to want to leave.

"It's not that I don't love it here," she had said quietly. "But, there's this big world out there that I've never seen. I want to see it."

A memory of a particularly brutal battle entered Jack's mind and he had winced, replying, "Not everything out there is good."

"I know. But that's part of living, isn't it?"

They didn't get much time to discuss, as the princess had returned from her first time flying dragons. Something had clearly gone very wrong, as the Chief of Berk had his arm around her protectively and there were no dragons to be seen. Rapunzel had rushed to the princess, only remembering to shout "Goodbye!" over her shoulder briefly.

Jack wondered what had happened. The dragon Merida was supposed to ride had spent the night in the stables with Jack and it was probably as peaceful as a dragon could be. The chief said it could change colors based on how it felt, but its scales remained a cheerful yellow the entire time.

 _That's the problem,_ Jack thought to himself. _It was a peaceful, gentle dragon and it didn't get along with Merida._

Almost as if on cue, the Chief entered the stables, relief flooding his expression at the sight of Jack.

"Hey, Jack," Hiccup said, grinning awkwardly. He had smiled in a similar way before when first asking if a dragon could spend the night.

"Good afternoon," Jack began to stand so he could bow, but Hiccup shook his head. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Well, I was hoping the dragon could spend the night again?" Hiccup forced a grin.

Jack shrugged and nodded, "Sure, as long as it's feeling better. Why'd it freak out on Merida?"

"You know about that?" Hiccup's face paled.

"Just guessed. She wasn't looking too good when you came back this morning."

Hiccup sighed, "Astrid suggested we race back. And Merida agreed. And I stupidly agreed too. And the hobblegrunt was already exhausted so.. It got upset and threw her."

Jack frowned, "You were flying pretty low I guess?"

"No," Hiccup winced. "We're lucky no one was seriously hurt."

Jack almost asked, but decided against it, "Well, sure. He can stay another night. Have you talked to the queen about building permanent stables for the dragons?"

"I was going to after flying, Mer and I both were," the chief's guilt was practically written in bold letters across his face. "But, now I don't even know if she'll want to fly again ever."

"She's pretty brave," Jack shrugged and smirked. "She'll probably be flying again before sundown."

Hiccup shook his head, "She was really shaken up." After a sigh and a long pause, he said, "If Merida doesn't feel up to it, do you want to go train some dragons with me? I did promise I would teach you." In exchange for letting the dragon spend the night, hiccup promised to teach Jack everything about dragons. Jack was willing to let the dragon stay anyway, but then he realized it was probably a good idea to learn just in case dragons began to move in permanently.

"Sounds good," the younger boy nodded. "When are you bringing the hobblegrunt back?"

"Astrid will bring him by later tonight," Hiccup nodded. "Thank you so much, Jackson."

"It's my honor, Chief," Jack smirked and bowed.

Hiccup laughed and saluted while he left the stables.

The moment Hiccup was gone, Jack's smirk slid from his face, and he fell back into his favorite pile of hay. He found himself staring at the door as it swung backwards and forwards until eventually slowing to a close. Slowly, his energy began to drain from his chest until it began to feel empty all over again.

xxx

Rapunzel watched her friend anxiously. The Chief of Berk had brought back Merida more shaken up than Rapunzel had ever seen before, including after the incident with Mor'du three years ago. She had helped Merida out of her torn clothes and sat the princess next to a warm fire. She gave Merida a small block of wood and a small knife so the Princess could sit and carve. The princess hadn't spoken a single word the whole time.

Finally, she did, "Rapunzel, I'm fine."

Rapunzel's eyes widened in surprise.

"You don't have to look at me like that, I'm okay," Merida insisted.

"I can't just not worry about you," Rapunzel replied quietly. "You haven't even told me what happened yet.."

The princess sighed, "I convinced mum to let me learn how to train dragons. And I sort of did. Except I think we might've pushed it a bit, and the dragon didn't totally trust me yet before I tried to fly it. It got upset and threw me off."

Rapunzel gasped, "What? How high were you flying?"

"Maybe higher than we should've been.." Merida admitted.

"That's crazy! How are you okay?"

"Hiccup... He jumped off of his dragon and somehow caught me. He didn't stop us from falling, but he did give me something soft to land on," Merida winced as she thought of the sound Hiccup made when he crashed into the ground. She was convinced he was dead, how could he have possibly survived such a fall?

"But... he didn't look hurt.." Rapunzel's eyebrows furrowed.

"I know," Merida set down the half-started carving and hugged herself. "And right after the dragon attacked him and he managed to fight it off! Rapunzel, he fought a dragon and won! And he won without even killing it."

"So.. I suppose the legends about him are true."

Merida nodded slowly. When watching Hiccup fight the dragon, she could barely believe her eyes. Based on Astrid's similarly wide-eyed expression, Hiccup wrestling dragons wasn't an everyday occurrence.

Rapunzel hesitantly asked, "Are you going to try to ride a dragon again?"

A cold fear shot through Merida, a tightness in her belly. She tried to think of how amazing and _free_ she felt when flying, but all she could remember was the terror from watching the ground rush up to meet her. She hadn't been that terrified since Mor'du nearly bit her head off, and she thought the last thing she'd ever experience was the sound of a demon bears roar.

"Mer?"

Merida shook her head, "I... I don't know. I loved it but... I need to just relax. Dragons probably can sense how you're feeling just like horses can... So I probably shouldn't try to ride again while I'm feeling all anxious."

"I'm sure the chiefs will understand," Rapunzel nodded and smiled comfortingly.

The princess nodded unsurely. After a moment, she whispered, "Just promise you won't tell my mum about it.. Not yet, at least."

"Okay," the brunette girl felt uneasy at the thought of keeping such a secret, but her friends comfort was more important. "I promise."

"Thank you."

Later that evening, the princess found herself staring out the window wistfully. When she thought back to the morning, her heart began to race all over again. Tears began to prickle in her eyes.

Astrid and Hiccup were probably feeling sorry for her. Stupid little princess can't ride a dragon without falling off. And needing the handsome knight to rescue her. Merida had never been the damsel in distress type. Yes she was a damsel, and she had been in distress, but she could've handled it. Except... Not that time. She would've probably died if Hiccup hadn't caught her.

She buried her face in her arms and quietly sobbed.


	6. Chapter 6

Early in the morning, Astrid woke herself up. She sat up in her bed and quickly began to twist and braid her ashy blonde hair until it was mostly tied out of her face. Careful not to wake Stormfly, she dressed herself in her usual attire of armor and spikes. On accident, she hit her shoulder pads against her bed post and caused Stormfly's tail to twitch, but the dragon didn't wake up. The viking looked at her axe and wondered if she should take it as well, but quickly decided against it. She wasn't trying to intimidate, she just wanted to talk.

Hiccup answered the door way too quickly upon Astrid's knocking. His green eyes widened in surprise, "Oh, good morning Astrid. I was just about to come talk to you."

"Oh," Astrid replied, equally surprised. "What about?"

"No, you got here first," Hiccup smiled. "What's on your mind?"

"I was just... I'm going to talk to Merida," Astrid shrugged. "I was wondering if you'd want to come too?"

Hiccup frowned as he considered this, "I mean, yes, I do want to, but I can't."

Astrid furrowed her eyebrows and frowned, "What do you mean you can't? You have other plans?"

"The stable boy? Jack?" Hiccup scanned her face for sign of recognition, but she just shrugged. "Well, I promised I would teach him how to train dragons too, because there's a possibility he's going to be dealing with a lot of them. And I was actually going to ask you if you'd want to join us. But, I guess since you're going to talk to Merida..."

"Well, I guess that settles that," Astrid chuckled. "Maybe if things don't go as planned with the princess I'll catch up with you two."

"Sounds good," Hiccup grinned. After a moment, his expression grew serious, "It's probably best that I don't try to talk to her. She probably doesn't trust me very much."

"Hiccup, you saved her life," she argued. "Why wouldn't she trust you?"

"I'm the reason it was even put in danger," he replied.

"Don't be ridiculous," Astrid rolled her eyes dismissively. "The racing thing was my idea. I could've noticed how upset her dragon was just as well as you could've. It wasn't your fault."

Hiccup sighed, "Okay. Just... If it comes up? Tell her I'm sorry? Please?"

"Of course," Astrid nodded seriously. She smiled at Hiccup's smile, and ruffled his hair. "Have fun training dragons, I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yes ma'am."

Astrid waved goodbye and began to wander through the hallways to search for the princess's chambers. She didn't notice how the servants purposefully tried to get out of her way until she realized it'd be simpler to just ask. The servant looked at her nervously, and Astrid felt her stomach clench slightly. Ever since she had landed in DunBroch, she had felt eyes on her at all times. On Berk, she was the epitome of a great female viking. Here, she was even stranger than the princess.

"Excuse me, do you know where the princess's bedroom is?" Astrid asked.

"Right down that hallway, ma'am," the servant replied, quietly. She pointed the direction Astrid was already walking. "It's the one after the tapestry."

Astrid thanked the woman and continued her path. She saw the tapestry the woman referenced. It was a young girl with bright red hair-obviously Merida-holding hands with a rather large black bear. Astrid shook her head in confusion and thought to herself, _What is with this family and bears?_

At the next door, Astrid turned and took a deep breath before knocking gently.

Moments later, the redhead answered. Her eyes widened, "Astrid?"

"Hi, Merida," Astrid smiled.

"You're up early," Merida was giving Astrid a strange look, and the viking didn't appreciate it much.

She smiled anyway, "I just wanted to come say hi and see if you're feeling any better."

"I'm not that sore anymore," the princess shrugged, but her gaze dropped to the floor.

Astrid dropped her voice and asked gently, "What about mentally? Are you doing all right?" When Merida didn't reply, Astrid said, "You know, it's okay. Trust me, every dragon rider has upset their dragon like that. Hiccup told me that the first time he put Toothless's tailfin on, Toothless straight up flung him off into a lake. I know that doesn't make it any less scary, but it is nice to remember you're not the only one who hasn't clicked with their dragon yet."

Merida shrugged, "I don't know if I'll ever click with that dragon."

"You don't have to," the blonde shrugged. "But you still did a pretty good job flying him, and maybe soon we'll find the right dragon for you."

"My mum doesn't even want me to fly dragons so what's the point?"

Astrid was taken aback, "What? But I thought.."

Merida sighed, "I don't know. I feel like this was a mistake."

"No, no! Merida," Astrid grabbed Merida's hands and bent down to look into her downcast eyes. She felt a strange wave of familiarity, realizing how many times she had done this trying to get an unsure-Hiccup to look at her. "Please, you can't give up so quickly. I promise that it's so so worth it." She smiled when Merida finally met her gaze. "You were a natural, it'd be a shame for you to just quit before it even gets fun."

The princess cracked a smile.

"Promise me you'll at least think about trying again?"

"Okay." There was a new strength in Merida's voice, more confidence.

"I think you'd really love it," Astrid nodded, feeling satisfied with Merida's promise.

xxx

Hiccup wasn't completely sure what he was expecting to see when he walked down to the stables, but it certainly wasn't seeing the hobblegrunt with his head resting peacefully in Jack's lap. The stable boy was running his hand gently along the yellow scales, a small smile on his face.

"I see you've made a friend," Hiccup smiled.

Jack jumped, but relaxed when he saw it was Hiccup. He grinned goofily, "Yeah, he's been curled up like this all night."

"Oh, did you sleep okay?" Hiccup asked, furrowing his eyebrows in concern at the heavy bags under the amber eyes.

"Better than normal," Jack shrugged. There was a heaviness in his voice, clearly referring to something, but Hiccup had no idea what the something was, and he didn't feel like it was his place to ask. The stable boy continued, "Anyway, I guess you're ready to go?"

Hiccup nodded, "Unless you want to stay and train him?"

Jack chuckled and stroked the dragon's head, "No, he's not my dragon.'

"Oh?"

"He just reminds me of someone I know," a dreamy expression flickered across Jack's features before returning to serious. "Did Merida ever name him?"

"Nope," Hiccup shrugged. "I don't think she's going to, either."

"Could I name him?"

"I don't see why not."

Jack looked down at the stirring hobble grunt thoughtfully, before saying, "Pascal."

Hiccup grinned at the way the hobblegrunt lifted its head excitedly, "I think he likes it."

Jack gently nudged Pascal and encouraged the dragon to move before jumping to his feet, "So.. What's on the agenda, sir?"

"Go search for another dragon for Merida, probably," Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll teach you about each species we come across until we find the right one."

xxx

Something about Hiccup made Jack feel uneasy, and that something had been there since the moment the chief had entered the stables asking for a place to keep a dragon overnight. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to make Jack dislike him. On the contrary, it only made Jack more curious and want to spend more time with the strange viking.

The something slowly became more apparent to Jack as he walked alongside Hiccup. Moments earlier, they had spotted a few dragons diving into and flying around a huge lake. Hiccup had landed Toothless so they could approach the wild dragons in the least-threatening way they could. But, aside from telling Jack his reasoning, Hiccup hadn't spoken a single word.

Jackson found himself frowning as he tried to figure out what the strange vibe was.

"Something you want to ask me?" Hiccup asked, catching Jack off guard.

Recomposing himself with a small shrug, Jack replied, "You're just kinda strange."

"I could say the same about you," Hiccup retorted with a small smirk.

"What do I do that's strange?" Jack protested with a small laugh.

Hiccup shrugged, "C'mon, the lake's right up there. We have to figure out how to approach the dragons."

As Jack watched the dragon trainer connect immediately with the wild dragons, Jack began to see what exactly was so strange about the man. Hiccup seemed to belong with the dragons, he certainly seemed more relaxed around them than he did even with the other chief. Maybe the something that made Jack so uneasy was the way that Hiccup almost seemed to be more dragon than human.

"So," Jack tried to act nonchalant. "What made you start training dragons?"

Hiccup gave Jack a funny look and replied in a very dry tone, "I made a series of huge mistakes. Except some of them weren't actually mistakes and now I'm a hero."

Jack was momentarily distracted by a very cute dragon (which Hiccup informed him was a baby Gronkle) landing on Jack's bare foot. Jack laughed at the tiny creature and lifted it up, "But I mean, I've heard some of the legends about you. There were rumors going around that General Pitchiner wanted to use your abilities to start a dragon army."

"Oh, him," Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he wanted to know if Night Terrors could be trained. I refused, dragons shouldn't be used for fighting." He paused, "How do you know about General Pitchiner?"

Jack cringed, and forced a sheepish smile, "I've made some mistakes too. And mine were all mistakes." As soon as he said it, Jack wanted to take it back, say that running away wasn't a mistake because it meant he met Rapunzel. And Hiccup. But who could say if this time of happiness would last?

The viking looked as if he were going to question Jack further, but he ultimately decided against it, "So, with gronkles, the first thing you need to know is that they really love rocks. Almost any kind is okay, but sometimes what they eat might change their fire. For example..."

xxx

Rapunzel skipped merrily into the stables. The dark room filled with light the moment she entered, and Jack found a smile coming easily to his face. He stood up respectfully and laughed, "Hello Sunshine."

"Good afternoon," Rapunzel beamed.

"You just missed it," Jack laughed. "Chief Astrid just came by to take the dragon out flying."

The girl's green eyes widened in wonder, "Wait, the dragon was in here again? Why don't I ever come down at the right time?" Just the day before, Rapunzel had joined Jack in the stables mere minutes after Hiccup had taken Pascal out to fly with Merida.

Jack chuckled at her adorable pouty face, "Maybe if you stick around long enough Astrid'll bring him back. I think you'll like him a lot."

"I hope so," she sighed wistfully. "Even though it is the reason Merida's so upset right now..."

"How is the princess?" Jack asked, surprising himself a bit. He usually asked out of obligation-not out of true concern-but he heard the worry in his own voice and even felt it in his chest. Maybe because he knew what fear was, and he didn't like the idea of it breaking a person as untouchable and brave as Merida.

"Well, she ordered me to leave her alone," Rapunzel replied, forcing herself to make a less-pained expression. "And she hasn't done that in about three years. So... I'm not sure. Well, I am sure that she's going to be okay. But I wish there was a way I could help her."

Jack's mind unwantedly began to wander down a path he hadn't dared let it for months, and he began to think of Emmie. When Emmie turned ten, she shot up about four inches. Even though she still only reached Jackson's bellybutton, she still towered over the other kids her age, especially the boys. Emmie normally held her head high and didn't care what others thought, but she began to shrink down and tried to pretend she was shorter than she really was. It didn't take long for him to figure out that a few rotten boys had been teasing her. And, even though he wanted to go pound them, Emmie begged him not to. It made him furious to know that his baby sister was hurting, and even more so to know that there was nothing he could do about it that wouldn't potentially hurt her more. But, eventually, Emmie stood up for herself and fixed her own problems like the tough little cookie she was.

Jack's chest ached slightly, but he managed to speak, "She might end up growing even stronger by dealing with it on her own."

"But... She doesn't have to be alone," Rapunzel half-heartedly argued.

"I know," Jack gently took her hand. "But if it's by choice, being alone isn't always so bad. And it's Merida. She's always followed her own path, aye?"

"Aye."

"I think she's going to be okay," he nodded. "Maybe even soon."

Rapunzel shrugged with a small sigh.

Jack smirked to himself slightly, a very bold idea popping into his head. Before he could lose his confidence, he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her as he fell down into the hay. She squeaked and clutched at his shirt, green eyes wide. When she saw his devious grin, her shocked expression dissolved into a slightly-annoyed-but-mostly-amused expression.

"Sorry, I slipped," Jack shrugged with a small laugh.

"You're getting awfully bold Mr. Jackson," Rapunzel teased, but made no attempt to squirm her way out of his arms. After a moment, she rested her head on his chest and sighed in content. Quietly, she added, "But I guess I'm not complaining."

Jack's heart skipped a beat, although he tried to brush it off.

Rapunzel smiled to herself, because she could hear his heartbeat. She snuggled up closer and closed her eyes.

xxx

Merida took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Moments later, it swung open and Hiccup's bright green eyes widened in surprise, "Merida? Hi! How-how are you feeling?"

She shrugged and smiled, "Not amazing, but not terrible. I talked to Astrid earlier."

"Oh did you?" The princess nodded in response, and Hiccup awkwardly looked down at his wringing hands. Merida couldn't help but look at them too, chuckling a tiny bit as she realized she was wringing her hands too. Hiccup looked back up, "What?"

Merida shook her head with a small smile, "So... I thought about what Astrid said. And..."

"And?" Hiccup pressed gently.

"I don't know if I'm ready to fly a dragon again, or if I'll ever be ready, not on my own at least," Merida clasped her hands together, the way her mother would after concluding a speech to the people. "So, that's that. Good day to you."

She turned to walk away, but Hiccup boldly reached forward and grabbed her wrist, "Wait!"

Merida slowly turned back around and looked at Hiccup, much more timidly than she had ever expected to feel around anyone.

Hiccup kept his hand around her wrist, as if he were preparing for her to bolt away, "I understand, you're not ready to fly on your own. But would you maybe be willing to try flying as a passenger?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that what if I took you flying with me," Hiccup looked at her anxiously. "On Toothless. An already trained dragon with an expert rider, if I do say so myself," Hiccup cracked a smile. "Would you be okay with that? It doesn't have to be this evening but..."

Merida pursed her lips as she considered his offer. Finally, she looked up and met his incredibly green eyes and nodded, "I think I'd be all right with that."

"Really?" he exhaled with relief, a smile blossoming on his face.

"Really," she found herself smiling too. "Maybe even now...?"

Hiccup's eyebrows raised, "Now? Are you sure?"

"Yes," Merida nodded, feeling more certain than she had.

"Well then, let's go, m'lady," Hiccup offered his arm to the princess.

She grabbed it and took off in a run. Hiccup laughed. The two ran through the corridors, getting strange looks left and right, but neither cared.

"Merida?" Queen Elinor sat up in her throne at the sight of the Chief of Berk and her daughter running together. "Dear? What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothing mum!" Merida called back, a laugh in her voice. "Just going to see Toothless!"

"Oh, all right..."

The nightfury was in the stables with Jack. Merida didn't question why, she wasn't very interested.

"Good evening, your majesties," Jack stood and bowed. "Have you come to get your nightfury?"

Hiccup nodded, "I'm going to take Merida out to fly for a bit."

Jack's eyebrows furrowed, but he still nodded and knelt by Toothless. Toothless nudged against Jack affectionately before walking over to Hiccup.

"Hiya Toothless," Hiccup smiled. "Merida is going to fly with us. Are you okay with that, bud?"

Toothless did a funny dragon smile at the princess and nodded. He nudged against her comfortingly, and Merida put her hand on the dragon with a smile.

After Merida and Hiccup climbed on top of Toothless and Toothless walked them outside the castle walls, Hiccup glanced over his shoulder, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then let's go."

As gently as possible, Toothless took off, his strong wings flapping hard and creating a woosh-ing sound. Merida felt as if her stomach had stayed on the ground and butterflies were filling the gap. She tightened her grip around Hiccup's waist as the trees began to shrink beneath them.

"Not much higher, Toothless," Hiccup said to the dragon.

Toothless leveled out so they were skimming the tops of the trees. When Merida looked down, she saw the trees looking like fire in the setting sun. She remembered the time she had drank from the fire falls, something only ancient kings had ever been brave enough to do. Merida furrowed her brows in determination. She was braver than the ancient kings, why should she be afraid of a little flying?

"You can fly higher."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

They began to fly higher and faster. Merida's hair was flying through the wind. She could see the sunset more clearly now. Toothless climbed higher and higher, until the wind was biting into Merida's cheeks and making her lungs ache from the cold. She ignored it. She looked around at the clouds, painted bright orange. Merida smiled and reached up to touch the clouds. She wondered if the ancient kings had ever touched a fiery sky.

Hiccup could feel Merida relax behind him. Her arms around him began to loosen as she sat back to enjoy the view. He looked around and realized they were completely surrounded by clouds. There was no earth beneath them, not that they could see at least. Everything was sky.

Merida felt as if her chest was going to burst. She had been searching for this feeling for so long, and she never wanted to give it up. Her cheeks began to hurt from smiling so hard. Unable to control her happiness, she reached forward and hugged Hiccup. He tensed up from shock, but quickly relaxed. She felt him chuckle a bit, to which she hugged him harder.

They continued to fly until the sun had set completely. Merida was resting her head against Hiccup's back, feeling as though everything was right with the universe. She watched the clouds turn from orange to pink to purple to a dark blue. She sighed in content. Hiccup glanced back at her and asked quietly, "Are you ready to go home?"

"I never want to go home," Merida laughed quietly. "I want to stay up here forever."

Hiccup laughed, "Trust me, if that were an option I would've taken it by now."

"I s'pose you're right," Merida sighed. "Yeah, we can go back now."

After landing, Merida threw her arms around Hiccup. She whispered, "Thank you so so much. That was amazing."

He spat a curly piece of hair out of his mouth and grinned, hugging her back.

After hugging for a few seconds too long, Merida pulled away and smiled breathlessly, "I guess I should go back to the palace... Mum might be worrying about me." She made a goofy face, and Hiccup laughed. "Goodnight Hiccup."

"Goodnight Merida," Hiccup smiled after the princess.

"She seemed happy."

Hiccup jumped. When he saw it was Jack, sitting there quietly, he gave a sheepish grin, "Yeah, I think she's going to end up as addicted to flying as I am."

"I'm glad it went well," Jack nodded.

xxx

Although it had been hours since Merida had touched the ground, she still felt as if she were floating through the air. She wanted to go thank Hiccup again and again, but she had no idea what to say to really show him how much she loved flying with him.

Despite the thrill still making her heart beat too fast, her fears were beginning to creep back in. She sighed to herself and hugged her knees. She wanted ride a dragon and fly, chasing the wind and touching the sky, but she was still too anxious to go by herself. A knot yanked itself inside her stomach. Her face felt like it was burning every time she thought about how scared she still was.

Hiccup and Toothless flew so effortlessly, it was as if they were two halves of one whole. Perhaps that was her problem, she and the hobblegrunt weren't meant to fly together.

 _Or maybe I'm not meant to ride dragons at all._

Merida shook her head at the thought. She wasn't going to give up so easily, like Astrid had said. Determined to swallow her fears, she resolved to try again with the hobblegrunt. Perhaps it had gotten over whatever had upset it before..

Her stomach clenched even harder.

 _If only I knew what dragon I'm meant to fly... Then maybe it wouldn't be so scary._

She inhaled sharply at the idea that Hiccup was probably judging her for her fears. A stupid little princess afraid of dragons unless there was someone there for her to hold on to. She furrowed her eyebrows, face growing warm with anger. Despite the fact that her head knew that Hiccup wasn't judging her, her pride was still taunting her.

 _I can fly a dragon without help. I'll show him. I'll be even better than him!_

 _I just need a dragon..._

Almost as if fate had heard her, a very familiar blue glow caught her attention. She slowly turned around to look out her window. A small smile tugged at her lips at the sight of the will o the wisp floating behind the glass. She stood and walked to her window. Her heart fluttered as the wisp vanished just the way it always would.

Without even bothering to change out of her nightgown, she ran from her room and through the castle.

When she entered the stables, the stable boy's eyes were wide, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Are you all right?" Merida asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

He jumped and stared at her for a moment before nodding, "I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

"I'm going for a ride," she replied, striding past him towards Angus. She pet the horse lovingly and he nickered in response.

Jackson stood up in protest, "I don't think your mother would be okay with you going for a ride this late..."

"Then don't tell her?" Merida swung herself onto Angus's back. "It's really important, all right? You won't be able to stop me."

He groaned, "I wouldn't be able to even if it wasn't important."

"That's the spirit," she grinned. Outside the stables, she caught sight of another wisp. She gasped and cried, "C'mon Angus, let's go!"

They chased the wisps through the dense forest for what felt like forever. Finally, the wisps were closer and closer together, signaling that Merida was almost at her destination. Slowly, she slid off of Angus and whispered for him to stay near, and began to walk in the direction of the blue lights.

The trail of wisps seemed to be leading her to something even brighter. Merida's tummy was full of butterflies as she slowly followed the lights. Slowly, the trees thinned out and revealed a stream flowing through the woods. Merida gasped as she saw that the waters were glowing blue, just like the wisps. And, drinking from the water, was a glowing blue dragon.

Her heart was beating rapidly as she watched it's ribbon-like wings slowly rise and fall as it drank. She began to wonder if Hiccup had ever seen a dragon like this before.

 _If only Hiccup were here..._

Slowly, the dragon raised its head and looked at her with its glowing eyes. She inhaled sharply, but refused to step back. Under its breath, it began to growl slightly. It fell into a defensive position, looking her up and down.

Merida gulped and reached back. She slowly removed her bow from her back and dropped it, before holding her hands up to show she didn't want to harm it.

It sniffed several times and tilted its head a bit.

Merida inhaled and calmed her thoughts before reaching out a steady hand.

 **Whoops sorry, I forgot to write replies for the last chapter.**

 **dracologistmaster: Thank you for you reviews! They mean a lot!**

 **Noctus Fury: Astrid would be a great shieldmaiden, more people should write solo fics about her being that. But yeah, Hiccup's fall is all just lame foreshadowing lol. Thanks for reviewing**

 **Guest: thanks!**

 **Well yeah that's all. Sorry I didn't update it until now, I've been hecka busy. See ya next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

Rapunzel woke up from the rays of sun peeking through her window. She yawned and sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes gently.

After tying her hair partially back and putting on a clean dress, she wandered into Merida's bedroom to wake the sleeping princess. Humming, Rapunzel threw back the curtains and said, "Good morning Princess!"

There were no mumbles and grumbles.

Rapunzel glanced back at the lump on the bed with a confused expression, but continued to pull out clothing for Merida. She poured a bowl of water for the Princess to look at and then not wash her face. The evening before, Merida had returned home late after going out flying with Hiccup. Rapunzel figured that was the reason why Merida was sleeping so heavily.

"Merida? You have to get up now, your mum wanted to speak wi-" Rapunzel cut off mid-sentence. She had just tugged away Merida's blanket.

The princess wasn't there.

"Elinor! Queen Elinor!" Rapunzel gasped, running into the dining room where the Queen was sitting with the Chiefs of Berk.

The Queen looked up harshly, but her expression softened seeing Rapunzel. When she saw the frantic expression on the young girl's face, however, her eyebrows furrowed in concern, "Rapunzel? What's the matter, lass?"

Chief Hiccup looked at Rapunzel with an equally worried expression.

"It's Merida..." Rapunzel tried to steady herself, but her hands were shaking. She pulled on a strand of hair and said, "I.. I went to wake her up this morning and... And..."

"And?" Hiccup stood, eyes wide in fear.

"She's gone!"

Queen Elinor gasped, "No, she's gone? Where... Where would she have gone? What happened?"

Rapunzel shrugged, unable to blink away her tears at this point, "I didn't really speak to her last night after she came back from spending time with Hiccup... She seemed happy though! I don't know where she is..."

The queen glared at Hiccup, "Do you know anything about this?"

Hiccup held up his hands defensively, "No! Of course not! She seemed really happy after we came back, I thought everything was fine!"

Astrid stood up in protest, "Why would Hiccup know anything? He would never have let your daughter run away!"

"Because I'm sure neither of you have ever run away, with your parents being such brutes!"

Rapunzel looked in horror as even Hiccup began to look angry. The vikings glared at the Queen, as if daring her to repeat that. Rapunzel hardly remembered the wars between the Scottish and the Vikings, but she knew that they were to blame for her parents deaths. The Scottish Queen blatantly insulting the chiefs of an extremely powerful Viking tribe? Not something Rapunzel considered to be a good idea. She quickly intervened, "We need to focus on finding Merida, not pointing fingers!"

Hiccup huffed, but nodded in agreement, "I'll go search with Toothless."

The Queen nervously brushed her hair behind her ear, "I'll tell the servants to keep an eye out."

Astrid and Hiccup moved to go to their dragons, but Rapunzel stopped them, "I'm really sorry for what she said, she didn't mean it. She's just worried sick, Merida runs away a lot, and each time she ends up in even more danger than before. She's just being a mama bear."

"That's kind of you," Astrid replied, although her eyes were still filled with rage.

Rapunzel sighed, "I'm going to go to the stables."

When she made it to the stables, she saw that Angus wasn't in his pen. However, Jack was curled up in the hay, fast asleep.

"Jack! Wake up!"

He sat up quickly, bleary eyes snapping open, "Huh? Rapunzel?"

"Where's Angus?" Rapunzel demanded.

"In his pen..." Jack glanced back over his shoulder, and his face paled. "Oh... Right."

"What happened?"

"Merida came in last night and said she was going for a ride. I was going to wait up for her... But..."

"How could you let her just go for a ride at night? She's still gone! What if she ran away again? Or what if she's in danger?"

Jack stood up and grabbed Rapunzel's hands to steady her, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I should've done better. But you can get mad at me later, okay? I'll saddle up two horses and we can go looking for her, okay?"

Rapunzel sniffed, "Okay."

He gently wiped away a tear that had trickled down her face and kissed her forehead. He released her hands and went to go to the horses.

Astrid walked in before he took two steps. Her expression was mostly neutral, but Rapunzel detected some fear in her eyes, "We.. We found her."

xxx

Hiccup couldn't believe his eyes. Merida smiled sheepishly at him, "So... Did I train it?"

He blinked twice and shrugged, staring at the dragon standing before him. Moments earlier, he had just climbed up on Toothless, prepared to search all of Scotland to find Merida. Before he could even take flight, Astrid saw something glowing blue in the sky. It was the Flightmare. Astrid had quickly dismounted Stormfly and backed away, only to freeze at the sight of Merida riding on the back of the dragon.

Merida laughed at Hiccup's expression.

Rapunzel ran out, closely followed by Jack. They stopped in their tracks when the Flightmare turned and hissed at them.

"I'm not letting that stay in the stables with me," Jack muttered.

Rapunzel squeezed Jack's hand and whispered, "I'm going to go get the Queen..." Before she took off in a run back towards the palace.

Hiccup looked at Merida warily, "Merida... Where did you find this dragon?"

The princess smiled, "The wisps lead me to him! Isn't he amazing? I didn't know that dragons could look like this!"

Astrid looked at Hiccup, eyes wide and lips trembling. Every fiber of her being was telling her to run away, but she found herself frozen in fear. But this time she couldn't blame it on the dragon's venom.

"How-how did you get him to let you ride him?"

"I just did what you taught me to do," Merida shrugged. "He seemed to like me."

Hiccup shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. He almost couldn't believe his own eyes. The flightmare had never let him or any other dragon ride near it before. Why did it allow Merida to ride it? After a moment, he asked, "How well does he fly?"

The princess responded by having the dragon take off into the sky.

Moments later, the Queen rushed out into the courtyard. She gasped and held a hand to her chest, "My word..."

"Your daughter just trained a dragon," Hiccup smiled, eyes locked on the graceful dragon as it soared.

"This is incredible..." Elinor marveled.

Even from the distance, she could see the brilliant smile on her daughter's face.

With a laugh, she cried, "Be careful, dear!"

xxx

By the time night fell, Merida knew what she had to do. Jackson, Rapunzel, and Hiccup all sat with her in the stables while she said her goodbye to the flightmare.

"Are you sure you want to give that thing up?" Jack teased. "It actually likes you... That can't be too common."

Merida furrowed her eyebrows and stage-whispered to Rapunzel, "I think he's talking to himself again..."

Hiccup chuckled and patted the dragon one last time, "In all seriousness, I think it's good that you're letting him go free. Some dragons need to stay in the wild."

"Well, I'm sure I'll find him again someday," Merida smiled. She stood and walked out of the stables, the flightmare following close behind. She knelt beside him and gave him a hug, before whispering, "Go on, you're free!"

The dragon roared and took off. The four humans watched as the glowing blue got smaller and smaller before seemingly disappearing among the stars. Hiccup smiled at Merida, taking her hand in his and squeezing it tightly. She smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder.

xxx

Hiccup chuckled as he watched Jack wrestling playfully with a few baby nadders. Dragon stables were constructed over the course of the past few weeks, and the new dragons absolutely loved the stable boy. Rapunzel walked over and giggled. Almost immediately, a nadder hopped into her arms.

The viking walked over to the two with a grin, "Hi Jack, Hello Rapunzel."

Jack laughed, "Hey!"

Rapunzel curtsied quickly and said, "Hello, Master Haddock."

Before Hiccup could tell her not to call him that, a familiar hobblegrunt walked up behind Rapunzel. He winced, "Uh... There's a dragon behind you, just so you know." He worried that she'd be frightened by the slightly bigger lizard.

She turned her head slightly and smiled, "Oh, it's Pascal!" The dragon nuzzled her affectionately.

Hiccup raised his eyebrows, immediately recognizing the bond between Rapunzel and Pascal. He hadn't expected it, but it also didn't surprise him.

A few of the nadders wandered over to Hiccup, begging for his attention. With less opponents, Jack won the wrestling against the remaining baby dragons and stood up, still laughing. He smiled at Hiccup, "I didn't expect dragons to be so playful. I always thought they were super serious."

A memory of Toothless being silly and playing in the snow with the regal Cloudjumper crossed Hiccup's mind, causing his smile to grow wider, "Some of them are, but they're a lot more like people. They like to have fun just as much as we do."

"Speaking of fun-" Jack glanced over Hiccup's shoulder and rolled his eyes.

Hiccup turned around just as a mass of bright orange and dark blue crashed into him. Merida threw her arms around Hiccup's neck and effortlessly took away his ability to breath. Despite his ribs cracking, Hiccup wrapped his arms around the princess's waist and hugged her back.

"Everything looks so amazing!" Merida pulled back so she could smile at Hiccup. Her blue eyes were sparkling with exhilaration.

"I'm glad you like it, your majesty," he grinned.

Merida opened her mouth to reply just as Astrid walked up to the pair. She smiled at the princess, "Hey Mer, things are looking good around here."

The ginger replied with an enthusiastic nod.

Astrid turned to Hiccup, "So, when are you going to start packing? Do you think that we should write a letter home to let them know we're heading back soon?"

Hiccup stuttered, "Uh... Well, I wasn't really thinking about heading home yet... We still have so much left to do..." He glanced around, his stomach sinking as he realized that most of the work was finished, or very close.

Astrid frowned, "Hiccup, what's the point in staying? We've done our job here.. It's time to go back to Berk. Where you belong."

Merida looked at Hiccup, anxiously waiting for his response.

Hiccup lowered his gaze, fiddling with a strap around his wrist while he thought things through. After a moment, he glanced at Merida, and a warm feeling spread through his chest. He looked at Astrid nervously and said, "I think... I think I want to stay... Just a little longer."

Merida's eyes lit up in excitement, "Really?"

"Really?" Astrid wrinkled her nose in confusion.

"Yes," Hiccup confirmed, feeling more confident. "If you don't mind, I think I'll write a letter to send back with you, to explain to my mother."

"I'll just be your messenger while you stay here?" she rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever you want."

xxx

"I'm sorry I got mad at you earlier," Rapunzel said shyly.

"You were just worried about your friend, it's okay," Jack smiled and kissed her cheek.

She beamed.

xxx

Merida smiled at Hiccup, "I'm... I'm really glad you decided to stay. I didn't even realize ya'd been here for so long."

"I know, it's really flown by," Hiccup laughed.

Merida looked down shyly at her hand-her fingers were intertwined with his. She still wasn't quite used to this affection, but it was nice nonetheless.

"Well, it looks like we've made it back to your room," Hiccup mused, stopping to glance at the door.

"I s'pose we have," Merida agreed.

Hiccup smiled and raised her hand to his lips, kissing it gently, "I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

She nodded eagerly.

"Well, goodnight then, Merida."

Before he could unclasp his hand, she tightened her grip and pulled him in closer. A warmth crept across his face as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Goodnight!" she said quickly, ducking into her room and slamming the door.

With wide eyes, Hiccup reached up and touched his cheek. He grinned and looked at the door before walking away, shaking his head and laughing.


	8. Chapter 8

It happened when he was only fifteen. It seemed like everything happened when he was fifteen.

Hiccup inhaled slowly and rested his head back against the wall. Although his body was insisting he get some rest, and sleep was trying to tug his eyelids down, his mind was racing at a million miles per hour. In the back of his mind, he knew he couldn't let himself close his eyes or else his dreams would be haunted by memories.

It was the anniversary of the accident. And every year his dreams would force him to relive the events, relive the pain.

After eight years, Hiccup was ready to just forget.

But as the moon climbed higher in the sky, weariness began to set in. Hiccup caught himself moments from sleep several times before he realized he couldn't do this alone.

Careful not to disturb Toothless, Hiccup climbed out of his bed and began to creep towards the door.

As he walked along the pathway down towards the stables, his limp steadily grew worse due to the phantom pains shooting through his leg. Hiccup silently berated himself for not grabbing a walking stick before leaving the castle.

Jack was asleep when Hiccup made it to the stables.

Hiccup's shoulders slumped in defeat.

As he turned to head back, deciding it was better to simply deal with the nightmares rather than wake his friend, he twisted his prosthetic and fell to the ground.

"OW!"

Jack sat up quickly, eyes bleary and unfocused. He fumbled for the large tree branch he always kept by his bedside and aimed it in the general direction of the sound, "Стой!"

"Wait, Jack!" Hiccup winced. "It's just Hiccup, I'm sorry!"

"Hiccup?" Jack yawned, immediately relaxing. "What are you doing here?"

Hiccup faltered, feeling a bit silly, "Uh... I..."

"What's wrong?" Jack asked, standing up from his pile of hay and kneeling beside Hiccup. The stable boy's amber eyes were full of concern as he reached up his slender hand to touch Hiccup's cheek. "Did you hurt yourself?"

A blush crept across Hiccup's face as he realized he had been crying. He roughly wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve and sniffed, "Uh... No. I... I just slipped. I was just going to leave and... Yeah."

"But why were you here in the first place?"

"It's dumb," Hiccup shook his head. "I shouldn't have even bothered you."

Jack rolled his eyes. He grabbed Hiccup by the wrist and dragged him over to the piles of hay. With seemingly no effort, he tossed Hiccup onto a pile of hay. He grabbed the lantern from the wall and handed it to Hiccup, "Light this. I'm going to go make sure none of the animals are spooked. I'll be right back."

Hiccup quickly reached into the lantern and brushed his fingers against the candle's wick. After a few sparks, the candle caught on fire and, a warm glow filled the stable.

After Jack returned, he plopped down in the hay beside Hiccup and looked up at him with his curious amber eyes, "So?"

"So...?"

"C'mon. Start talking," Jack sighed. "If you haven't noticed, I'm pretty annoying when I want to know something. So spare yourself the agony and just tell me why you came down here."

"I'm just... I'm scared to go to sleep is all," Hiccup said, quietly. "Something bad happened to me eight years ago today, and I always have nightmares. And I don't want to deal with that tonight."

"What happened to you?"

"Jack... I don't want to relive it. That's why I don't want to sleep."

The stable boy shrugged, "Maybe talking about it and reliving it on your own terms will help you move past being so scared." After a moment, he added, "Trust me, I have my fair share of things to have nightmares about. I totally understand not wanting to talk about it. But... I don't know. Maybe you'll feel better."

"What's happened to you?" Hiccup asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Uh-uh," Jack shook his head. "I'm not telling you anything until you tell me."

After thinking about it for a long time, Hiccup finally let out a small sigh and nodded.

Jack turned onto his side and propped his chin up with his hand. In the candlelight, his eyes were even brighter and more inquisitive than ever.

"So... Before vikings rode dragons, we fought dragons. And my dad was huge on killing them. In fact, if you'd never killed a dragon you were basically worthless," Hiccup felt a weight in his chest as he remembered how small he always felt after talking to his dad. "So... You can guess how popular I was on the island.

"But... Anyway. Because of Toothless, Astrid and I discovered the Dragon Island. And we learned that the only reasons the dragons were attacking us was to get food to bring back to their Queen."

"Like a beehive?"

"Exactly! And... So blah blah my dad found out I had a pet dragon, and blah he got all mad at me. And, trying to defend Toothless, I told him about the island and the Queen. And he took Toothless and went off to slay the dragon, even though I knew there was no way he could beat her."

Jack nodded slowly.

"So the rest of the teenagers and I took the training dragons and flew to the island. And I got Toothless back," Hiccup sighed. "But there was still the very real problem that a giant dragon was trying to kill us all, and the ships had all caught on fire, and we had absolutely no way of escaping."

"Sounds like a pretty big problem."

"I knew that probably the only way we could get rid of the alpha dragon was by killing her... And the only way to do that was to set her on fire from the inside. Toothless and I managed to lure her up into the clouds, away from everyone else, and Toothless shot a tiny bit of fire into her mouth right when she was preparing to set us on fire. All of that gas in her burst into flames, and it looked like we were going to be okay," Hiccup shuddered, remembering the blistering heat from the dragon burning alive. "But Toothless's prosthetic accidentally caught on fire... And without it he can't fly at all. Somehow I was knocked off of him and I fell into the huge fire."

Jack's eyes were wide.

"I mean... I guess somehow Toothless caught me and saved me... Well, most of me," Hiccup chuckled and lifted his prosthetic foot. "But... I remember burning alive. I remember dying. And I don't know why I didn't."

The stable boy shrugged, "It could just be that you were so convinced you were going to die you were hallucinating. And you probably were in a lot of pain, so it felt the same as dying."

"I guess so," Hiccup shrugged. Quietly, he asked, "You want to know something else kind of crazy though?"

"Of course."

"Ever... Ever since that day... I've been able to..." Hiccup gulped, trying to muster up the courage to finish his confession.

Jack raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"...to do... this."

"Ебена мать!"

Flames at least a foot high were being emitted from both Hiccup's palms. The flames were blue, and Jack nearly retreated from the sheer intensity of the heat.

Without a word, Hiccup closed his palms, and the flames died.

Jack stared at him, mouth hanging open in utter shock.

"Sorry..." Hiccup winced. "I... I'm not good at controlling it."

A smirk tugged at the corner of Jack's lips, "That's... That's amazing! Hiccup, what the hell even are you?"

"I don't know." Despite himself, Hiccup smiled too.

"I just... Wow." After a moment, Jack snapped out of his trance. "So, I bet all this has to do with why you survived falling off of Toothless a few weeks ago?"

"Probably."

"And how you managed to _wrestle a dragon?"_

Hiccup laughed and brushed back his hair awkwardly, "Yeah, I guess I haven't been as discreet about this as I thought."

For a few moments, neither boy spoke. Both were too wrapped up in their own thoughts.

Hiccup looked up at Jack, examining the boy's thin, haunted face. After hesitating, he spoke softly, "It's your turn... To tell me what happened to you."

Jack frowned uneasily.

"I know there's something, you admitted it," Hiccup insisted. "And I could see it on your face the moment I met you."

The stable boy sighed, "It's... Not nearly as epic as your story. And I didn't earn any phenomenal fire powers from it."

"I'd still like to know," Hiccup nudged him gently. "We're friends, Jack. I want to understand why you are the way you are."

After a long pause, Jack nodded. "I grew up in a small town in Russia-too small to be on any maps. So small, we weren't even sure if the government knew we were there half the time. But, apparently, they remembered we existed when they needed new recruits for an army."

Hiccup's breath caught in his throat.

"We didn't even know that there was a war," Jack shrugged helplessly. "So, it was just completely out of nowhere. These soldiers came and demanded a young soldier from every family. So, all these kids... Kids that should've been fast asleep and dreaming of the gifts Ded Moroz was going to bring them in a few weeks... They marched forward and joined this stupid, cruel army."

"And you joined too?"

"I had to," he whispered. "My dad can barely walk... He needs to carry this giant staff around with him to keep on his feet. So, I left my parents and my little sister behind to fight in General Pitchiner's war."

"That's horrible," Hiccup shook his head.

"All they did was put us in uniforms and give us some weapons. No training, no explanation, no mercy."

Jack squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face in his hands.

Hiccup gently put his hand on Jack's shoulder, "You don't need to keep talking about this... If it's too hard..."

Forcing himself to regain his composure, Jack shook his head and grinned, "I mean, it's whatever. It's over. I survived, right? I'm here learning about dragons and... and I have a friend now. It's almost worth it, in a way."

"Can I ask you something else?"

Jack nodded.

"Why are you here? Why didn't you go back to Russia? To your family?"

His smile slid off his face, his expression suddenly stony once again. "The only reason I survived... Was because I was a coward. I ran away. Officially? Jackson Overland is dead. He was slaughtered along with every other kid that was forced into the army. So my parents and my little sister and everyone I've ever known think I'm dead."

Hiccup's mouth hung open in shock.

"But," Jackson shrugged it off. "The government had to send them money, to compensate for losing me. Maybe they got even more since there no body to properly bury."

"But... Couldn't you still run back to them?"

"And have them know I'm a coward?" Jack raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "That'd be disgraceful." His voice lowered, "Besides, if I go back to Russia the General could find me again. And... He's a monster. I can't let him know I'm alive."

Hiccup gently touched Jack's hand comfortingly, "I'm sorry this happened to you."

Jack immediately cracked a smile, "Your hand is ridiculously warm. Like this is seriously so insane."

Understanding Jack was desperately trying to change the subject, Hiccup forced a grin, "I haven't told anyone else about this. Other than Toothless, of course. Toothless wasn't as impressed."

"Well, I am definitely impressed," Jack smirked. "I wonder what else you can do..."

Hiccup offered no more than a shrug.

"We should go test it!"

"Oh, I don't know if that's such a good-"

Before Hiccup could finish his sentence, Jack was already on his feet and pulling Hiccup to his foot. The young stable boy grabbed Hiccup's warm hand and dragged him out of the stables.

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh, his anxiety and sadness from a few minutes ago all but forgotten.


End file.
